Those top four in my ranking are all in basically the same tier. I came to The Format late, so while I still recognize Dog Problems as a great album, it has a little less personal importance to me than the three above it. I should've thrown the Steel Train records in there, too, though they'd probably all end up at the bottom in reverse chronological order for me.
I never quite got The Format like others. I’ve only been listening to the S/T Steel Train album a few days and I’d put it up in the top 5 of this music universe.
This is how I feel about Steel Train. Even though I'm a huge Bleachers fan, Steel Train never quite clicked for me.
Didn’t get into the “Antonoff-cinematic-universe” until Gone Now but can’t imagine liking the Bleachers stuff but not at least liking Trampoline.
I shouldve kept my dumb mouth shut, because… I can’t get into ST I gotta give it another listen sometime soon, only checked it out two or three times
Slowly but surely revisiting the fun cinematic universe. Listened to dog problems today, good album. As of right now I think strange desire towers above whatever I’d call second best. The grimes song sucks but every single other song rules, which I can’t say about any other album in the discussion
Out of the ones I know well enough: Aim & Ignite Some Nights Dog Problems Strange Desire Grand Romantic Gone Now Trampoline Interventions & Lullabies Steel Train
Like.... If you start at album at a normal volume, and by track 3 you can barely hear the music anymore.... That's bad. I don't believe anyone can listen to this album front to back without touching their volume controls once. I dare you.
yeah I’m kinda bummed about how my vinyl sounds in that regard too. The more I listen to this the more it really feels like it’s just unfinished, even though the songs are good most of them have this demo tape feel. I get that artists sometimes go for that sound intentionally but it’s just weird that Chinatown is on there sounding polished and like the total opposite.
My first complaint about this album from listening a ton over the last week is hearing all the finger screeches on the acoustic guitar during Strange Behavior. I don't always have this on full volume, and on low volume ALL you hear on that song are those chord changes. It's really grating.
Sometimes it's nice to have the string noise in there to give it that organic quality, and sometimes (most times) it's nice to engineer or EQ things a bit to make it less distracting.