It's their weirdest album. It has no sense of flow from song to song for me and it only gets weirder as it progresses. It even feels out of synch with the rest of their discography to me cause it doesn't feel like a progression from Cities or an indicator of what Dark would sound like. I like the individual songs a lot though (with the exception of "Retrace" and "Younglife"), the diversity of the songs is fun, and the awkwardness kind of gives it a unique place in their discography for me.
I like it. There are some good songs there. It’s just not as good as any of their other albums (minus Blueprints). I feel bad saying that though because there are some nice Anberlin moments on there.
Perhaps it would be more appreciated as a whole if it came out before Cities. I think part of the reason why I love it so is because how it's so different from both those albums. I love the overall sound and mixing on it as well, and it has some really good B-sides.
It’s hard to say - Never Take Friendships Personal was loved as passionately as Cities in many ways. But it may have been that following both of those albums back to back is what cost them with NS. I think there are some good songs but nothing reaches the heights of either NTFP or Cities when I take a step back and listen to them all. I said this about Emery recently but when a band has so many albums like Anberlin, why would I choose one that isn’t as good when I could listen to Cities, Vital or lowborn? When I return to Anberlin for something like this bracket I appreciate NS more than when it first came out but they aren’t ever going to be my definitive go to Anberlin songs. They’ve done everything they tried here better elsewhere. I don’t mind if they are for others though - and I’m glad you love it! It’s better than a lot of bands for sure!
My Lowborn song rank 1.Armageddon (amazing) 2.Velvet Covered Brick (amazing) 3. We Are Destroyer (amazing) 4. Losing It All (amazing) 5. Stranger Ways (great) 6. Atonement (great) 7. Dissenter (good) 8. Hearing Voices (good) 9. Harbinger (a little underwhelming but still decent) 10. Birds Of Prey (meh)
Might as well call this now: Atonement: 12 We Are Destroyer: 7 Stranger Ways: 15 Velvet Covered Brick: 4 our lowborn final is: Atonement Vs. Stranger Ways
Stranger Ways - This could be a close vote What a great album, I would have been fine with any song winning it all (except maybe Dissenter) This album has grown on me so much the past few years, definitely ranks up there with Cities and Devotion