Anberlin Band • Page 228

I remember being really turned off by the lyrics on that one. I need to give it a listen though it’s been a couple years

 

Love the first two A&B albums but not so much on the last two. Still interested to see where he goes with it. I doubt anything could capture what happened during Felt though. That’s the whole package for me. Definitely a time and place thing.

 

Joey's mom is going through some tough medical times. Let's show her some love: Donate to Aid a Selfless Mom in Her Time of Need, organized by Joseph Milligan

 

Matty was on Nates “Drums?” Pod this week and there’s lots of good new Anberlin lore in it. Sounds like t hey have an entire record in the can and there’s a single incoming. They talked about the benefit of having a singer that is a fan first and that he’s been pushing to return to the classic sound because that’s what fans love the most. As a person who super was not a matty or MMF fan I’ve been really pleasantly surprised by their approach of bringing someone new in and it seems to be injecting a ton of life into the band interpersonally. Worth a listen for the die hards.

 

I, for one, enjoyed the newer sound. The band regressing with a singer I don’t care for is not a selling point for me.

 

this is what i was afraid of. Anberlin has always been an interesting case study in functioning as a legacy/nostalgia act, because between new material and touring, their priorities have generally been bifurcated. recording-wise, they've arguably made the strongest material of their career in the past 15 years and most of the time it sounds nothing like their first 4 albums. but in live settings and re: streaming metrics, it's the older material that people seem to go back to, and newer material rarely gets played.

making a whole album (and potentially one without Stephen) that sounds like their most popular albums isn't the flex they think it is, and i think it really pushes them further into the nostalgia territory more than some of us would like. i think doing something nostalgic every once in a while is fine as long as it's not the primary creative direction for future material. it's part of the reason why i didn't outright write off Walk Alone because as generic as the lyricism and vocals are, i get that its purpose was to try to sound like earlier Anberlin material but with a different vocalist. it's the worst song on that album and one of their least-impressive songs overall, but i figured it would be a functional, one and done return to that sound to show they can make that older style of music with another vocalist, with Seven feeling slightly more aligned with their newer material.

but then you have a song like High Stakes (which i assume will be on this new album), literally built on top of an unused instrumental from their first few albums, and it feels even more nostalgia-heavy and less-authentic than before, signalling that any future material is probably going to sound derivative of their older songs. maybe these newer songs will do well at shows and feel functionally similar to something off of NTFP or Cities for some listeners, but i don't have much hope that they'll be as creatively interesting (or as vocally well-executed) as their last 4 albums.

 

Do they not realize that sounds like a tribute band?? A mega fan singing in the style of his favorite band? That describes people who front tribute bands

 

The irony of Matty talking about what fans love the most.

 

So it sounds like it's a whole new album with just Matty as a lead. Which means that the NTFP tour is going to have some of those new songs/singles sprinkled into it similar to their WWWY set.

 

Marty is just going to be the live singer, guys

 

The problem with trying to make new music that sounds like the old music is that people aren't going to the shows to hear something that sounds like a particular album; they're going to hear the specific songs from that album (even with a different singer, they're still going to know the lyrics/melodies/riffs/etc.). If the casuals aren't listening to/reacting to your new music live, it's because they aren't listening to it, and that's not going to change by catering to what you think they want to hear. There's probably also something to be said about actually playing your new songs live, which hasn't really ever been a huge focus. I personally was so stoked to hear "Two Graves" and "Circles" when I saw them at the 2022 NYC album shows, and the same would've been true if I'd had opportunities to hear more songs from Vital, Lowborn, and the EPs live. There's just never been much of an opportunity for fans to build a live relationship with almost anything other than the singles post-Cities.

Maybe it makes sense if you want to have new songs that flow better with the nostalgia act sets/you don't have to change your guitar tones for, but the only real reason to do this would be if the band were genuinely excited about writing music that felt like a throwback (which doesn't seem like how they're talking about it). This band has always felt most important when they were pushing the bounds of the scene formula, so regression isn't going to be it.

 

if they're gonna make new music that sounds like their older albums, at least put Stephen on a few of those songs. nothing about it sounds exciting (and i'd still be upset if they did it with only Stephen at the helm), but at least those new songs would probably sound a bit better.

 

imo as a casual fan whose interest is peaked, my best guess is Stephen will come back in the next 3-5 years with some of their best most progressive stuff and this is a fun detour to keep the band alive. I do think the progressive stephen stuff is by far their best work. nate talks about it in the pod. I do find the new songs to be very catchy as straightforward anberlin jams

giving me blink with skiba energy. fun era, and when tom came back it was the best it’s been in many years.

 

That's the most optimistic view of this, and I hope you're right.

 

I'm not going to give up on the possibility of this band being good, but it is pretty disappointing to hear so much in the livestream shows about how Nate and others brought so many creative ideas to the table for the last couple of albums and then have them just abandon that and dive back into the old sound after the EPs showed how well they could keep adding new things and developing their sound post-hiatus.

 

I’d recommend checking the pod. It’s really candid and gives a peek into the current vibes. Also from past info it sounds like they wanted Stephen to be more involved in recording new material and he just hasn’t been able to but there’s no bad blood.

 

Piqued.

 

After revisiting the last album and still being in awe that they came back from their initial break up, not only picking up right where they left off in 2014 but also releasing some of their best material ever... this is all disappointing to read. Trying to remain optimistic because I do like the songs with Matty.

If Stephen was still on leads, I'm sure I wouldn't mind them going back to their roots. With a much, much less unique vocalist in his place now, I can't say I'm thrilled.

 

The comparison to blink with Skiba is actually a great one, didn't think of that. Curious to see how it goes in the following years

 

I can't say I came away from that podcast thrilled about the state of the band/what to expect from the Matty edition haha

 

i'm about halfway through it. the consensus seems to be that Matty figured that songs that sounded like old Anberlin would be what their audience would want to hear in the midst of a lead singer change (something that the others said they surprisingly agreed with), hence the step backwards.

definitely don't agree with that mindset. if they planned on using him on recorded music, it would've been a lot more interesting to do something a little unorthodox (like their newer material) than to have him try to emulate Stephen singing their biggest hits.

 

this whole time i thought he was hinting on social media that he re-recorded ntfp. can't decide if this is better or worse!

 

Both are a pass for me. So, whatever.

 

i'll most likely just end up being hit and miss with any matty-recorded anberlin stuff.

walk alone was bad, high stakes was fine, i did like seven because i lean towards more heavy stuff anyways.

they are my favourite band of all time, so going in a ntfp / cities direction will likely yield some songs i like, but i'm not expecting to be blown away by anything matty does with them

 

As uncompelled as I am by the new material, I do think about hindsight. In 20 years, looking back, is the Matty era a weird misstep or just another phase of the band? I think that depends less on older fans and more on newer ones.