Anberlin Band • Page 262

Totally against AI but would love to swap Matty's vocals with Stephen's somehow for those 3(?) songs he's done

 

around the time they announced Nevertake, i briefly experimented with using a stem splitting software to try to extract Stephen's vocals from the OG version of A Day Late and throw them on the instrumental of the new version (extracting Matty's out), just to see what it would sound like. the tempo was off ever so slightly (i think the new version is the tiniest bit faster?), but even after adjusting it, the differences in mixing and production just felt insignificant to even continue. if it ain't broke...

it was also really jarring to compare isolated vocals from Stephen and Matty and hear just how much layering and pitch correction is going on with Matty's vocals. Stephen had little to none.

 

Retrace is great damn, some of Stephen's best vocals on that chorus

Breaking probably has my vote, lazy corny stuff

 

High stakes would be okay if the lyrics weren’t so corny and someone else was singing

 

They cranked New Surrender out pretty fast. Def has some major label stank on it musically and lyrically.

 

lol i like both those songs :beefy arm: im otherwise generally not a fan of that album tho

 

Retrace is one of their better soft songs imo. The lyrics are also top notch. Top 5 lyrical bridges Stephen’s ever written

 

I think Closer is their worst, I hate that chorus so much. To the Wolves isn't much better. Retrace and Misearbile Visu are down towards the bottom too. Not a big fan of Armageddon either.

 

I see the wildest takes in this thread lmao. can't believe anyone dislikes Miserabile Visu

yeah that bridge/chorus combo in the last minute is golden

 

Breaking is probably my favourite on New Surrender, some great melodies on that one.

 

giving it a quick listen now and it definitely sounds better than I remember haha. I don't think I've listened to that song in years. I still don't think I like it very much but yeah it probably doesn't deserve to be on a worst list lol.

 

New surrender wasn’t cities, and even though fans were *kinda* disappointed when it came out, I think it’s held up. It’s their poppiest record for sure, def not on the Mt Rushmore

 

Breaking, Foreign Language, You Belong Here, the worse Feel Good Drag and Losing it All is probably my bottom 5. haven't heard any of the Marty stuff and don't intend to lol

 

Yeah, I think a lot of my dislike for that one and Dark come from how letdown I was when they came out. I still can't listen to either without thinking about how much of a step down from Cities/NTFP they are.

 

Was in soph year of college when NS came out, so I listen to that and think back on that time. It definitely wasn't Cities-tier, but it was still better than a lot of what was being put out then, to me, anyway. I enjoyed it, it just wasn't on the level of Cities or NTFP at that point

 

I have a friend who says Closer is his absolute favorite Anberlin song…wild. One of my least favorites because of the chorus.

 

I was just bummed they’d made Cities with Aaron Sprinkle, and then were like “time to grow up and make a major label record without Sprinkle!” and the result was NS. And DITW. Sprinkle was their secret ingredient and it shows with how good Vital was.

 

Yeaaaaaaaah Closer is a meh song with a bad chorus

 

yeah and its not like sprinkle didn’t make an incredible major label record (acceptance)

 

...I really like Closer

 

Was it their decision to move on from Sprinkle or did the label dictate it? I don’t know how these decisions are normally made

 

Me too, I don't get the "bad chorus" criticisms. Is it because it's just the one word repeated? Do they need more words?

 

if it is then we're just ignoring the "are you out there somewhere" bit lmao

 

That is part of it, but I also just think it sound bad. I think the whole song just feels clumsy and poorly written, melodically and lyrically.

 

I feel the same about most of that record tbh, that song is just the worst offender.