As of current.... Crimson (Usually my top) From Here To Infirmary Agony & Irony Good Mourning Remains (This counts) Damnesia (This also counts) Is This Thing Cursed? Broken Wing EP S/T Newest EP This Addiction My Shame is True Goddammit Maybe I'll Catch Fire Alkaline Trio (Comp album of For Your Lungs Only EP and I Lied My Face Off EP W/ Sundials single.)
I don’t have a definitive go to Alk3 album. Based on what I relisten to: Remains (Love the HWM split and some bsides) From Here To The Infirmary Crimson Agony and Irony Is This Thing Cursed? Good Mourning Broken Wing EP Maybe I’ll Catch Fire Goddammit This Addiction Alk3 Ep My Shame Is True Damnesia (should listen to more often) Older stuff Also listen to Skiba’s side of the Seconds split, both Sekrets albums, can tell I’m gonna listen to The Bygones album a lot and Emergency Room stuff on occasion
Hmm, let’s give this a try…. Good Mourning Agony & Irony From Here To Infirmary Crimson Maybe I’ll Catch Fire My Shame Is True Goddamnit Is This Thing Cursed? This Addiction not counting the compilations. If I’m counting recent EPs, Broken Wing goes above Crimson and “E.P.” Goes above Goddamnit. Good Mourning was the album that I “got into them” with (after previously knowing the songs I Lied My Face Off and Goodbye Forever), so I’m sure some of that is nostalgia, but I’ve always loved the mood and sound of that album. Matt’s fucked up vocal chords I know he hated it but goddamn did they work with that record. Perfect winter record. Most of the rest of the rankings have fluctuated over time. A&I continues to be their most underrated imo. Crimson was high on my rankings when it came out, then sank towards the bottom, but now it’s roughly where I think it belongs. Of the two newer ones, I loved ITTC? off the start but the rest of the album isn’t as strong for me once you get past like track 4 or 5 minus a song here or there. It’s also, IMO, the second weakest Dan album and I’m a Dan guy so, that drags it down a bit. But I did love the way they kicked off the record with the most awesome Dan song, then an awesome Matt song, and then some good dual vocals with Demon and Division. Now that I just double checked the track list for My Shame Is True….I could very easily bump that up above MICF and Crimson at times.
Good Mourning From Here To Infirmary Is This Thing Cursed Goddamnit Crimson Alkaline Trio Maybe I’ll Catch Fire Agony & Irony This Addiction My Shame Is True Ish... this was kinda difficult. TA and MSIS always in bottom two, mind. I really like A&A too.
From Here To Infirmary Good Mourning Goddamnit Maybe I’ll Catch Fire Crimson Is This Thing Cursed My Shame Is True Agony & Irony This Addiction Remains and the S/T comp probably have all my favorite Trio songs though
Only thing I would switch is shame ahead of cursed. Some days I like good mourning more than infirmary but gun to my head I probably go infirmary first.
Yeah the first 3 are interchangeable for me for sure. If we're counting Broken Wing EP songs on Shame then I agree it's better than Cursed
Yeah as I said above I kind of forget how strong Shame is until I look at the tracklisting and I'm like oh, yeah, that's a lot of good songs on there. Adding the Broken Wing EP would be almost unfair lol. All 4 of those songs are great. They all sounded classically Trio but also different/new at the same time.
Yeah I simply connected more with shame. I should listen to cursed again bc if I am being honest I haven’t listened to that record much. I enjoyed it but I went to other releases that year pretty quickly after it came out so I could be underrating it. And yeah broken wing owns.
Good Mourning Remains From Here To The Infirmary Crimson Maybe I’ll Catch Fire Goddammit Agony and Irony My Shame Is True Is This Thing Cursed? This Addiction Alkaline Trio (comp)
I know someone mentioned Skiba’s raw vocals, but what else puts Good Mourning at the top for people? I’ve always felt the production was a little more compressed sounding on that one vs other records they had done. Some good singles and songs for sure, but that’s not exclusive to that album. Just curious.
It's their most consistent album from both sides. Every other album either favors Matt or Dan in quality, but Good Mourning is A+ from both.
Agree with this And frankly, even the somewhat shoddy sounding production works. Like, I don't think they went into the studio with some set idea of making the record this way, but....that record just sounds like getting snowed in during a blizzard with grey skies and bitter cold and etc. It's a perfect winter record to me, and for some reason the weird way the bass/drums sound here and there fits it, just like Skiba's voice does. But yeah the songwriting is top notch. The closest thing to a "miss" on that album for me is Fatally Yours and even that song is decent and it's so fast that it's over in a blink and it's like a cool little "interlude" between the first half and back half of the record. The highs on it are as high/higher than every other album IMO and the lows (which, again, in my opinion is just Fatally Yours which aint that low lol) on it are better than the lows on most every other album, save maybe FHTI and A&I for me. Basically, Good Mourning is to me in the winter as Everything in Transit is to summer for me, as in a perfect album with no tracks i feel compelled to skip, that really fits the mood of a season. Also I guess it's worth pointing out that I've always been into Dan's lyrics and voice more, and Good Mourning to this day is still the most Dan-heavy album (even though Emma is actually a Matt song)
I think in for Trio, I have a bias towards songs with Matt and Dan singing together and then Matt lead vocals songs. With that said, Dan’s new Bygones songs have been some of my absolute favourites he’s done. Lots of repeat listens and the album isn’t even out yet. Maybe his solo songs are just a little more playful or something (because I love when he slips in a playful song on a Trio record because it’s feels refreshing).
Wow. Well, I was attempting to write up something but this just perfectly summed it up. So I won't bother.
I've always enjoyed when they traded vocals as well and still wish they'd do it more. I remember during the Good Mourning to Crimson cycle, there was a lot of fans on the blood pact and elsewhere calling for more shared vocals and then they went and did Mercy Me and Back to Hell so that was cool lol. Seems like in every song they do some vocal trade offs, I end up loving. Matt's bridge in Love Love Kiss Kiss for example is such a cool and fun little moment. Seeing it return on Is This Thing Cursed with the title track and Demon and Division in the bridge a bit was cool too. I hope they keep that up. One thing that I've disliked ever since Good Mourning is they stopped doing harmonies for each other and instead starting doing harmonies for themselves. It's such a waste IMO because their voices sound cool as shit together.
To me, I mostly judge albums based on the songs. The recording can sometimes swing me a certain direction, but I mostly care about the songs. Good Mourning and Infirmary are their best collections of songs. Even if there are songs that are better elsewhere, the quality in those albums never dips that low for me. High ceiling and high floor.
A lot of the harmonies moving forward are actually Derek, but he blends so well it's super easy to not know which are him and which are their own
I only notice production when I find it has a negative distracting effwct. With that album it’s only slight, but I do feel it sounds a little flatter in some way. As brought up earlier, maybe vocals from Matt have a different range from other albums because vocal damage presurgery, and some people love it and others feel a little different.
It is cool he does vocals and even he his own solo stuff too. The Trio members are really all vocalists, guitar players, bassists and drummers (not sure if Dan plays or not but I wouldn’t be surprised) and they are all songwriters. It’s even fun when one of the guys sings the other guys song on lead vocals.
Yeah when Derek has done backing vocals I always enjoy it too. His joining in on the "we washed it down the drain" line in Emma, one of the rare moments when all 3 of them are singing at the same time, is awesome. Also love "Don't Say You Won't", which he wrote but Dan sings the leads on.