Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Basically. As a nerdy white dude myself, I identify closely with their bullshit.

they also sing about wealth, richness, upper middle class type shit, less so now (more about Maturity or something, which I secretly kind of like less), which makes them even more irritating than your average nerdy white etc.

and the ivy league vocab stuff lol. "used to front like angkor wat" sick dude...

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

This album seems pretty critical of said wealth/class etc, to be fair.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

I mean no offense, but you have Fall Out Boy albums at a 4.5 and you think VW is lame/corny?

@Feather

the whole thing is kind of a tonal whodunnit. sometimes the rich people in their songs seem like idiots, sometimes it kind of seems like it's them, or at least celebratory of the..."culture". maybe that's what dissipated post-contra-ish

Album is really, really good. Hope is such a fantastic closer and I think they've struck a really interesting balance here of all the sounds they've stabbed at in the past. There's a lightness here that was maybe a little difficult to fully grasp at first (I didn't listen to any singles beforehand), but has really rewarded deep listens.

I find VW's upper class schtick to be slightly grating, but more often than not that's the terminal lefty brain part of me. I do find elements of this album a little hard to square knowing the Ezra accusations that, to my knowledge, were never really refuted.

A tonal whodunit lol! I like that a lot.

Album Rating: 2.5

@American I love pre-hiatus FOB and take no offense to you rifling through my ratings, didn't mean to offend you calling VW corny! This just might not be the right brand of corn flakes for me.

Album Rating: 3.5

To sona's point, I at the very least think their subject matter feels both earnest and intentionally self-parodic - an intoxicating combo. Maybe rich white Ivy leaguers singing about rich white Ivy Leaguer things is annoying, but wouldn't it be more annoying if they were singing about...I dunno... tHe StrUgGLe?

Album Rating: 3.0

Listen three just finished and there’s a few good ones here, this is miles ahead of that near unlistenable double they released last time, but I feel people are getting overexcited saying this is going to rate better than ‘Modern Vampires’ when the dust settles

Album Rating: 4.5

I absolutely hated Father of the Bride (THAT'S where all these low ratings need to go) but I can say I'm very confident in thinking this is better than Modern Vampires, that album has some downright snoozers and the amalgamation of a bunch of different styles wasn't as fun, purposeful or precisely executed like it is here (tho shoutout Hannah Hunt being their best song/strong 5/5)

Just my 2 cents tho!

Album Rating: 3.5

Team Contra

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Completely agree Slex although I probably still like FOTB and MV better than you (3.5 and very light 4.5 respectively).

Album Rating: 4.5

FOTB 2

MVOTC 4.3



I actually haven't listened to all of Contra because I hated Cousins that much lol

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This is their best and most consistent for sure, front to back. Modern Vampires is very very good, but loses steam a bit in the back half imo.



Self titled, Contra, and FotB are all pretty on par for me

Self titled and Contra are quirky and playful, FotB is lush and mellower, but all three I come back to mostly for the highlights (especially FotB which has a few of their best songs ever still)



This album feels like a beautiful combination of all three, playful and lush

Album Rating: 4.5

1st one: 4.4

Contra: 3.2

MVotC: 4.4

FotB: 3.3

New one: 4.2 - 4.7 (need to give time to see were it settles)

Album Rating: 4.9 | Sound Off

Interesting to see the reactionary viewpoints vis-a-vis wealth ivy league smarm are still being regurgitated all these years later. I don't think it's a critically interesting analysis or particularly fair / a propos, about on par with talking about Lana del Rey's lip fillers. I think it reveals bad faith that only engages with the material in the most superficial way possible !



Contra best but this isn't far behind

What is the “viewpoint” you’re refuting? That they sing about that stuff a lot? That they take a potentially ambiguous perspective on its virtues and vices? That the prevalence and ambiguity might form part of their appeal? Did you just want to say that

another one bites the dust