This song would have made me so emotional if Stephen sang on it. Cities is my favorite record of all time and it just sounds so close from an instrumental standpoint. Matty singing on it makes me emotional for other reasons. Look. The song is not awful. It's just that the song could have been a 10 and is taken down to a 5 or 6 at best because of the vocals/lyrics. And that feels awful. It's like a glimpse into a re-recording of NTFP or Cities with a different singer, which is so disquieting as a longtime fan. This is gonna sound dramatic, but Anberlin has been my favorite band for more than half of my life, they mean more to me than any other band, and I can't believe this is happening. It's surreal to not recognize them anymore, and the fact that the instrumental on High Stakes is so Anberlin, and the vocals/lyrics are so not, really amplifies the cognitive dissonance. I know from this thread and Facebook that I'm not the only fan who feels this way. Sure, this is a cool story for Matty, but I'm sorry. Memphis May Fire is doing fine as it is. That's not why I'm listening to Anberlin. And if the guys were respecting their legacy as much as bands like U2 or The Killers, they'd know those bands would sound 100% not like themselves with a new vocalist. It's not a knock on the rest of the band at all, it's just how it is. Sorry for the long rant. Not being excited about new music from my favorite band is just a really bizarre and upsetting feeling.
What do we have to do to force them to try out Christian on lead vox for at least one or two songs. I’m sure it’d work a hundred times better than what they’re doing. No disrespect to Matty. I can tell he’s passionate, living the dream as a long time fan himself and trying his best, but yeah…
Maybe Christian could work for some songs but not enough to go that route…not easy songs to sing, many of them. I like the idea but I bet the band considered it.
Thinking more on this, this could all be resolved with some transparency from the band. I feel like we would all be way more receptive if they were clear and said something like “Our immediate plan is Marty is just touring, Stephen will be on our main albums, we’ll put out some lighter fun singles with Marty for fun”
I can't help but wonder how this would sound if Matty didn't have that weird processing/effect on his voice. It's really jarring to listen to and completely takes me out of what starts out as a solid song instrumentally.
I don’t mind Marty…but I can’t look at this as Anberlin. On its own I liked all three songs but yea….not Anberlin.
Someone posted this on Reddit: “Stephen at WWWY Just saw them at WWWY, Matty started and Stephen took over midset —-With Matty—- NTFP Paperthin Hymn High Stakes A Day Late —-With Stephen—- The Runaways Time & Confusion Audrey, Start the Revolution! Dance, Dance Christa Paffgan Feel Good Drag (Matty joined for bridge thru end) Stationary and Symphony of Blasé not played”
Weird coincidence that the two bands I would've been most excited to see play through albums at WWWY both didn't play the full album they were supposed to. I didn't go so I'm not so gutted, but yeah, could've been haha.
A couple days late to make this comment but releasing a song based on a generic poker analogy is a wildly appropriate encapsulation of Marty’s inclusion. Why write nuanced, poetic songs when you could not?
i know a lot of bands do this so they can end with their most popular song or whatever, but if you’re doing a full album playthrough, just do it in order.