May do a NS ranking later but retrace is really high up for me. Always loved how his voice hits a little falsetto throughout the chorus.
For real though, for being bottom tier Anberlin, NS has some fantastic songs. Resistance, Blame Me, Disappear, Soft Skeletons, Miserabile... all sit up there with their best IMO.
Retrace The Resistance Disappear Breathe Feel Good Drag Miserabile Visu Burn Out Brighter Soft Skeletons Blame Me! Blame Me! Breaking Younglife Haight Street This was a more fun listen through than I expected. I definitely underrate it, though I think it’s easily their weakest lyrically and I reaaaally don’t like younglife and Haight. Also this band should’ve put out an acoustic record. All their acoustic songs are so good.
That live acoustic album is one of my more played Anberlin albums, Stephen sounds so great. Now if only that had been included in the vinyl box set...
The live acoustic version of "I'd Like to Die" might be just about the pinnacle of their career to me.
I really like New Surrender. There are only a couple of boring songs on there, the rest is actually good. Haight Street and Breaking are so underrated.
Ranking Anberlin ballads: 1. The Unwinding Cable Car 2. Atonement 3. Type Three 4. (The Symphony) of Blasé 5. Inevitable 6. Innocent 7. Harbinger 8. Down 9. I’d Like to Die 10. Take Me (As You Found Me) 11. Breathe 12. Naive Orleans 13. Retrace 14. A Perfect Tourniquet I feel like there’s a couple borderline songs like The Haunting and You Belong Here that I don’t really consider ballads but others might. Anyway, their ballads own.
All of this song and album rating makes me want to listen to their discog again but I want to hold out until the show in December.
I’d take a few out but for the sake of consistency kept all and added those 2. 1. The Haunting 2. Down 3. Inevitable 4. The Symphony of Blasé 5. Unwinding cable car 6. I’d Like To Die 7. Retrace 8. Type Three 9. Naive Orleans 10. Breathe 11. Innocent 12. A Perfect Tourniquet 13. Atonement 14. Take Me (As You Found Me) 15. Harbinger 16. You Belong Here Lot of interchangeability in the top half but a big drop off after 12 for me
I like this post because of your participation, but Retrace above Type Three and Atonement hurts me. Haha. I actually appreciate your love for that song. I obviously don’t love it, but Anberlin is one of those bands where I enjoy every song to a degree so I’m happy to see any of their songs get love.
My friend Brandon Jones from Indie Vision Music just did an interview with Stephen Christian: Interview : Stephen Christian of Anberlin | Indie Vision Music I don't know if it's because Brandon questioned him into submission, but Stephen goes from "Anberlin is DEAD" to speculating about new music possibilities so fast. It's actually hilarious.
Nice interview. This is making me so excited to see them. Also just listened to DITW and loved it. I need to rerank the albums.
I really love type three so it was hard to see it midway down, but their ballad-y songs tend to be really good anyway so being midway on a list of already good songs is great!
I’m shocked he puts SFTLNDH in his top 3. That record feels so empty to me. Cool interview though, fun read.
Have we talked about this song featuring Stephen Christian on vocals? Came out in September so I may have missed it.
Yeah the rest of his answers definitely imply something other than “Anberlin is DEAD.” I foresee a Copeland type future for them. They won’t tour or make albums nearly as frequently as they used to, but will when they want to. I think if they had seen that as an option before, they might not have closed the door so hard. It was nice to see him say they might tour again down the road, regardless.
So Stephen is moving/has moved back to Florida? Wow, that's interesting. I wish he wouldn't preach about politics, though.
This is... confusing. "Anberlin is DEAD" *rest of the interview is about what new Anberlin albums/tours would look like*