Album Rating: 5.0

Elephant has always resonated with me. The lyrics are full of amazing political, social, bliblical, and societal metaphors.



Elephant refused to swear the oath

Said "I don't know anything about truth

But I know falsehood when I see it

And it looks like this whole world you've made

...

Lord, for sixty-some years I'd surrendered my love

To emblems of kindness

And not the kindness they were emblems of

...

This mock trial can no more determine my lot

Than can driftwood determine the ocean's waves

...

And the jury sang

"Hang! The Elephant must hang! The Elephant must hang!

Album Rating: 4.0

Oh the lyrics are awesome, just think the chorus is kinda weak. I actually love the verses

Album Rating: 4.5

I haven't heard the album yet except for Julia and Hydra, but at the moment I'd have to say



1_A Glass Can Only Spill What it Contains (Always has and probably always will be my favorite mwY song)



2_Nine Stories (close second)



3_Rainbow Signs



4_The Soviet



5_Bullet to Binary



6_Messes of Men



7_King Beetle



8_Kristy with the Sparkling Teeth



9_My Exit, Unfair



10_In A Sweater Poorly Knit

Album Rating: 5.0

The chorus is the ultimate culmination of those verses though. The whole song trudges through all this philosophical genius, only to have the ignorant majority insist that he hang. I've never been able to wrap my head around the hate for the chorus. It's not the catchiest but it's exactly what belongs there.

Album Rating: 5.0

@YourDarkAffected: Props for Kristy - that's just outside my top 10.

Album Rating: 4.5

I think it's the best Aaron's voice has sounded on any song (I've heard so far). He packs so much emotion in his voice and I love the lyrics. Particularly this line, which I read as summing up the band's whole career



"We spent our nights climbing towers built on songs of the obsolete inscriptions of the sons of baaabbylon!"

Album Rating: 5.0

I love the alt-country vibe emanating from the acoustic guitars. It suits them oddly well.

Album Rating: 4.5

For sure. I would support their next album moving more in that direction if it kept the quality of Kristy.

Album Rating: 5.0

Oh I just realized where I read that line before: your reddit post ;-)

Album Rating: 4.5

haha damn I've been outted!

i think a takeaway is that advanced reviews are fraught no matter the publication, but this is especially true for one as integrally formed by the internet age as sputnik is. this isn't just because there's not much really to discuss but also because there's less time to parse the nuances of the album. i'm by no means an exponent of the "you have to wait to form an opinion man", but the review feels a little rushed and a little pre-conceived rather than natural. idk.

Album Rating: 5.0

Would it help to state that the review was the product of nearly one week of revisions and reconsideration, after an even longer time spent listening/digesting? Could possibly be a weak review for certain, and I'm not refuting your point about advanced reviews, but I'd stop short of saying it's rushed - merely because I know I put more work into this than most of my write ups lol.

ha, i appreciate that you're in an awkward predicament when an advanced copy is bestowed upon you -- you don't want to be coy about it, but you don't want to be too effusive about it either, so it's really a mixed blessing. i apologise bc rushed was the wrong word but with advanced reviews there's less scope to be critical and personal and depend largely on referents to other work which can be alienating to outsiders and infuriating for devotees. i think that precarious balance combined with the fact that this came out over a week before the release date, on a site where many of us (myself included) that treasure mwY, leads to that impression, no matter how much effort you put into the review

basically this could have been have better timed, for the sake of the review and the userbase idk. i think letsgofishings approach is really cool - a timed retrospective - and i follow those reviews with heaps of interest! there are other ways to hype in a more bloggy format that could have been more judicious in this instance imo

Album Rating: 4.0

sowing: i need to relisten to Ten Stories. I'm probably overly harsh on the record, it does contain some of my favourite mwY songs. I do like that weird effect they use in the chorus of elephant too, but wish it were catchier or maybe a little more intense.

Album Rating: 4.0

yo Wines I love you dude but you could afford a more conversational tone when you're just posting in threads just sayin' lol. also I'm of the belief that it doesn't require much time to form an opinion on something. maybe your feelings will deepen over time, but I think it's pretty easy to determine how much you enjoy something even after just one listen tbh

Album Rating: 5.0

No need to apologize at all - your point is well met. I definitely have a propensity to get caught up in hype and subsequently to want to build expectations for others. Before I got into music journalism I used to read advanced reviews for works by my favorite artists and it would ramp up the excitement for me even more, so there might be a part of me that wants to recreate that for other readers now that I'm on the other end providing content rather than consuming it. I've always viewed reviews as something that should come out before or at the time of release, because most readers (in my experience) look to them for guidance as to whether or not the album is worth purchasing. These could be outdated views in the age of streaming, though.

Album Rating: 5.0

@Gyro - Yeah admittedly Ten Stories tends to take a back seat to B,S/PH/CFUTF (and now Untitled, too)...I think it has to do with the more laid back and melodic indie-rock approach, it just doesn't feel as urgent or in your face. With that said, the philosophical lyrics on that album top any of their other works for me, and I'm an absolute lyrical junkie. (oh and Bear's Vision is a candidate for most underrated mwY song ever).

ha not at all, i think it's just the way we approach reviews differs but different strokes! sorry for being vituperative but it's a classic Wines move to go m e t a

@gyro shamefully this isn't even an affectation but how I communicate normally. for some reason i'm rarely invited to social functions. definitely a coincidence,

Album Rating: 4.0

agreed, their lyrics have honestly never been better. I'm relistening now and enjoying it a lot more (maybe just because I've been on a mwY binge for days lol). The only album I can't seem to reconnect to is A to B. I loved it so much back in my teen years but now it just seems kinda amateurish to me. Still some great songs tho

Album Rating: 4.0

Wines: haha you're too formal, mate! It's all good tho tbh lol. You just remind me a lot of myself when I was reviewing regularly on here several years ago