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Last Active 12-23-19 9:27 pm
Joined 09-16-14
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| SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS: Don't you forget us #9
Ninth instalment in my forgotten/dismissed/underappreciated Post-Punk bands list series: Calm before the storm. Next list will be massive (and you'll have to wait for it a bit). This band only has a couple of albums out, but that doesn't mean they aren't criminally, unjustly, disgustingly and repulsively underrated. Sure, they also released a couple of EPs, but apart from one song on one of them, they all contain songs from other full-length albums, therefore the EPs are not included. | | 6 |  | Sad Lovers and Giants
Melting in the Fullness of Time
This, the album that would go on to become their final, is the only instance of the band's sound actually changing into something. It is no longer Post-Punk, but rather a certain Post-Punk-inspired all-out Pop record. The vocals got themselves a little bigger range, the production and the instrumentation suddenly has a whole new level of intensity to them, only the songwriting is still that good old simplistic Sad Lovers and Giants. As a whole it is not a bad album in any way but it doesn't exactly stand in one line with the others even though it isn't all that far away.
Go-to tracks: German Cars, Submarine Girl, Melting in the Fullness of Time | | 5 |  | Sad Lovers and Giants
Feeding the Flame
I tend to start the write-ups with a certain quick summary or a background of the presented album or a band, but this time I will go the other way around and say what I don't like about the band. On practically every album of theirs they add these strange long musical atmospheric instrumental sequences that are mostly calm or slow. I never liked those. Sure, they are fine, but after listening to an album, those particular passages stick out like a sore thumb. And this album seems to contain the biggest amount of them of all of the band's releases. The album still has massively impressive highs and its atmosphere is impeccable, so those long interludes didn't affect it all taht much, but they still do feel a bit overexcessive.
Go-to tracks: Cowboys, 3 Lines, Big Tracks Little Tracks, Sleep (Is For Everyone), Man of Straw, Close to the Sea, In Flux | | 4 |  | Sad Lovers and Giants
Headland
Headland is a perfectly acceptable release. There is no real overarching depth to it, nothing revolutionary and nothing distinct to separate it from many, many other records released back then. But there is one primary defining trait about this album: it is a strong musical piece. Sad Lovers and Giants didn't try to go over their own heads with innovative ideas and ambition, instead they just constructed a well rounded and entertaining enough record of memorable and pleasant tunes. It's an album, whose only main goal is to be there and be good. And it does the job well.
Go-to tracks: Godless Soul, Like Thieves, One Man's Hell, Alaska | | 3 |  | Sad Lovers and Giants
The Mirror Test
The Mirror Test is essentially just like any other Sad Lovers and Giants record. The band has put an extra effort into sounding as consistent as possible. The maximum changes from album to album are minimal and mostly restricted on what instrument they use more in the background as a mood-setter. But the band's sound is wondeful as is. They perfected the art of blissful, stubbornly pleasant music and they delivered another consistent record with the Mirror Test. This album contains a densly rainy, hazy and floating atmosphere. The instrumentation is as gentle and soft as a baby's skin. No wonder people often refer to it as the band's best.
Go-to tracks: White Russians, Take Seven, The Outsider, Cuckooland, House of Clouds, Life Under Glass | | 2 |  | Sad Lovers and Giants
Epic Garden Music
Everyone has that one friend or acquaintance who isn't all that much knowledgable in music and only likes the inoffensive poppy stuff that comes towards them on the radio and such. If you want to gently guide them into the wonderful world of music, this is one of the first records to play. Its beauty lies in how pleasantly soft it is. The album flows like a walk through a park, or in this case garden. It's a beautiful, brief and concise record that only keeps on giving with each song introducing a different pleasantly surprising detail to its instrumental palette, from saxophones, xylophones to synthesisers. It's an easy-going and mildly caressing experience.
Go-to tracks: Clint, Lope, Cloud 9, Alice (Isn't Playing), Far From the Sea | | 1 |  | Sad Lovers and Giants
Treehouse Poetry
Deeply romantic and charmingly cheesy. This album is everything Sad Lovers and Giants ever made, amplified to a whole new level of gentleness. This is the perfect record to play to your soft-hearted significant other. With each passing moment the album delves deeper and deeper into that hazy, illuminating aesthetic that makes it sound like a soundtrack to a dream. A really, really soothing and assuaging dream.
Go-to tracks: Lizard King, Parachute of Love, Christmas on Easter Island, The Sky is a Glove | |
Papa Universe
10.06.17 | The band is notorious for never ever changing even in the slightest, so I was essentially comparing one thing to the other exact same thing. For that reason, you may view the rankings as pretty much interchangeable. | Papa Universe
10.06.17 | Beginner's Guide:
Alaska
The Outsider
Alice (Isn't Playing)
Clint
Christmas on Easter Island
Colourless Dream
Lizard King | SandwichBubble
10.07.17 | Sounds like something I should dig right now. I'll try 2 in a few | Papa Universe
10.07.17 | It's like a hybrid of And Also the Trees and For Against. | SandwichBubble
10.07.17 | Just hit play on 2, and I've got a big smile on my face. :D
This is great so far! | DoofusWainwright
10.07.17 | Another lot I've never heard of....but only six entries, that's a small discog for this series ;) | Papa Universe
10.07.17 | It's a calm before the storm | butcherboy
10.09.17 | 2 has always been my favourite of theirs.. though I need to re-dig into them properly.. another nice one, Uni.. | butcherboy
10.09.17 | 2 has also been touted by Cobain back in the day, that little blonde doom-munchkin.. | Papa Universe
10.09.17 | No wonder the album axes like a shotgun shot. |
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