Alkaline Trio - Is This Thing Cursed? (August 31, 2018) Album • Page 59

"Stay" has absolutely joined the ranks of my favorite Dan songs. Up there with Burned is the House, Fine, and Every Thug Needs a Lady.

 

This has to be the weirdest ranking I’ve seen so far

 

Obviously haven't seen mine yet haha

 

Mine probably wouldn't be popular either.

 

I like the songs on this new album, but I feel like there’s something off in the production/mixing. The instruments seem so loud and I can barely hear the lyrics sometimes. I dunno. Maybe just me.

 

I don’t want to prematurely rank this with the other albums. But after about 4 listens I definitely love this album. I like how Dan’s quick punk numbers punctuate Matt’s bigger rock songs. Matt’s lyrics are the best they’ve been in years.

 

Crimson
My Shame is True
Good Mourning
From Here to Infirmary
This Addiction
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
Agony & Irony
Goddammit


Where ITTC lands remains to be seen for me

 

Good Mourning
Crimson
Agony & Irony/Is This Thing Cursed?
From Here to Infirmary
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
My Shame is True
Goddammit
This Addiction

 

From Here To Infirmary
Good Mourning
Crimson
Maybe I'll Catch Fire
Goddamnit
Agony & Irony
My Shame Is True
This Addiction

This will probably be around Crimson, could be above or below

 

the mixing is fucking terrible, I gotta agree. the guitars alternately sound paper thin or like huge slabs of distortion with no discernible notes in them whatsoever, it's frustrating

 

It sounds fine to me.

 

Good Mourning
Goddamnit
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire
From Here To Infirmary
Crimson
Is This Thing Cursed?
My Shame Is True
Agony & Irony
This Addiction

 

GM
FHTI
Crimson
A&I / ITTC ??
MICF
This Addiction
Goddammit
Shame

 

Idk why but GM just never clicked with me as much as it seems to with the majority of fans. It’s not a bad album by any means, just that there’s only one song I’d include in my top Alk 3 songs.

 

I love ITTC? But I also am just discovering Alk3, so I am duelly obssessed with Crimson. Life is hard.

Not too into Agony & Irony, though.

 

It used to be one of my favorites but a lot of those songs don't really do much for me anymore. That said, there are still four or five GM songs I'd place among their absolute best.

 

I love it but it hurts to hear Matt’s voice so torn up on that album

 

Good Mourning is my favorite because it’s the perfect juxtaposition of Matt’s dark songs and Dan’s romantic ones. The heart and the skull as it were.

 

And even Dan's romantic and hopeful songs still had this wintery, gloomy feel to them. Even the fucked up production on the drums/bass helped that out I think.

 

Yeah, pretty standard Cameron Webb mixing/production there (mastered by Greg Calbi). It's a tad muddy a few places, but it sounds pretty standard for him/the genre. That's a really consistent clean but "rawer" punk sound. (See: New Pennywise album, Strung Out, or his early stuff like Timing is Everything by Over It.)

I find it funny how some people want this to be what Blink sounds like, while other people hate it and call it "terrible." (Guessing that's a speaker thing.)

 

If the consequence of the production is missing a lyric here and there, well I grew up with 90's punk albums let's just say that lol. This album is exactly how I want a Trio album to sound

 

Haha right? I even think back to how clean Panic and FOB albums were, but I still couldn't understand half the lyrics

 

Crimson is what I want every Alkaline Trio album to sound like. That was the cleanest and tightest sounding album. God I miss Jerry Finn.

 

People would have lost their minds if this album was super clean and compressed.

 

I mean I absolutely love how that sounds too. I also don't know if anybody else could do that sound right and have it work the same way.