Anberlin Band • Page 68

Atonement
Hearing Voices
Stranger Ways
Velvet Covered Brick

 

Oh damn that’s a great lineup, I will be checking that out, thanks! I knew the Emery guys had started something else but didn’t realize that was it.

 

Finally someone who votes the same as me.

 

Atonement: 11
Armageddon: 9

Hearing Voices: 8
We Are Destroyer: 12

Stranger Ways: 15
Harbinger: 5

Birds of Prey: 7
Velvet Covered Brick: 13

Well you went 4/4 so rest assured you made the right calls :)

it’s weird to me that songs like atonement and birds get so many votes against (imo) better songs because I always picture those more ballad-y songs as going great on DITWLIAP and people didn’t care for that record so it’s kinda paradoxical to me. Seems like it’s been a trend in other albums too for “simpler” songs to do really well, which is not what I expected at all going in. That may not be the best way to describe what I mean but hopefully it makes sense lol

 

I'm loving your enthusiasm for this album!

 

YES. Never really liked any of their album covers. Blueprints, Cities and New Surrender are their best, I suppose, even though none of them are great.

 

I love love love the cover for Dark, even though I'm pretty sure it wasn't created specifically for that album.

 

Also Hearing Voices is clearly the best song on this record, how is it not crushing

 

I'm happy to see such a strong turnout for this album!

 

I think New Surrender Deluxe is my favorite album cover of theirs. I agree Dark is great too though.

 

It's a great song but so is We Are Destroyer. One of my favourite Anberlin openers.

 

I'll keep going. Hahaha. I just think it's amazing, yet I think it's become the "middle of the road" Anberlin record in the eyes of fans. It doesn't get the flack that Blueprints, NS, and Dark tend to get but it doesn't quite get the praise that Cities, NTFP, and Vital tend to get either. It ends up being the most overlooked album in their discography despite being as perfect a final album as they could have written IMO. Not playing the songs live (other than We Are Destroyer, and Atonement in the final show) didn't help the album's legacy and made it feel like an after thought. Even Stephen has said something to the effect of, "I almost wish we'd just ended on Vital, but we wanted to record one last time."

But listening back now, every song has a sense of finality to it. It's really, really diverse, but it sounds cohesive to me because each song sounds like it's ushering in the end of Anberlin in its own way. It's their last album and every song knows it, which also made it super emotional for me because I was basically losing my favorite band for the first time. And sentiment aside, it's held up super well for me over the years and only gotten better. I just love it. And now I'm done talking about it. Ha.

 

Where would you rank it in their discography?

 

I'd personally rank it #2.

1. Cities
2. Lowborn
3. Vital/Devotion
4. Never Take Friendship Personal
5. Dark is the Way, Light is a Place
6. New Surrender
7. Blueprints for the Black Market

 

This take makes me sad.
Velvet Covered Brick is a top tier Anberlin song.

 

1. Cities
2. Vital
3. New Surrender
4. Never Take Friendship Personal
5. Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place
6. Blueprints for the Black Market
7. Lowborn

 

Ugh, fine.

1. Vital
2. Never Take Friendship Personal
3. Cities
4. Lowborn
5. Dark is the way
6. New Surrender
7. Blueprints

 

Anberlin has so many good songs that are top tier, but songs from Lowborn are not a part of that. We Are Destroyer is the closest.

 

We will have to agree to disagree on that. Songs that I consider top tier Anberlin from this album:

We Are Destroyer
Armageddon
Velvet Covered Brick
Losing It All

Also fine i'll do my ranking

Vital/Devotion
Cities
Lowborn
NTFP
^all 4 of these I would consider the four quintessential Anberlin releases that are superb and everyone should listen to
Dark Is The Way
Blueprints
New Surrender

 

It’s so rare for a band to go into the studio and record a ‘farewell’ album. It makes this quite a unique experience. And I think it’s quite a unique sound. As I said, it’s an odd one for me - some of the best Anberlin moments are here but it’s inconsistent. (I think the diverse opinions about which song is best, whether song X is awful or top tier Anberlin etc. kind of show this!)

Oh and the whole touring songs thing doesn’t matter to me as much as being in the UK most bands I like don’t visit us so I hardly ever hear songs live.

 

How Lowborn and Yellowcard turned out makes me wish Motion City Soundtrack recorded a final goodbye album.

 

All good songs, but I wouldn't place them above really anything on NTFP, Cities, Vital or songs like Glass to Arson, Disappear, Resistance, The Feel Good Drag Remake, Art of War, Prey Tell...

So I guess it just depends on how many songs can fit into the category of Top Tier songs.

 

LOL at people saying "fine" in regards to doing another ranking. I think I've posted that exact ranking like three times in this thread. I love rankings but even I can admit we're over doing it.

 

I agree. I like Panic Stations well enough, but it seemed like the band members weren’t too excited about it. I could be wrong, but the recording and release seemed like it was really drawn out, and it just didn’t seem to have that exciting new release air about it.

 

It's my first time. Interesting to see other users' rankings as well.