@phaynes12 @VanderlyleCrybaby @Surfwax @irthesteve sorry guys, it literally says "definitive" above the picture and was posted in advance of any other "definitive" lists. i don't make the rules. just gotta deal with it, i guess. :(
Salutations is the drunk saturday night version. Ruminations is the sober sunday morning come down version. both have their place.
I just find Ruminations so dull. The fleshed out instrumentation really brings songs to life that I think have no life originally
Wide Awake Lifted Digital Ash People's Key Cassadega Fever Weeds Happiness Collection I have only heard Dice once so I dunno
My hard stance is this: Wide Awake is a very clear No. 1 and Digital Ash is a very clear No. 2 After that, I have a very hard time ranking BE albums because they're all pretty different from one another and depending on my mood - they could change vastly.
Cassadaga Lifted Fevers I'm Wide awake Noise Floor if we're counting it Digital Ash People's Key Letting off the happiness Five Dice Weeds Collection ...the top 4 switch just depending on my mood
Cassadaga Wide Awake Lifted People’s Key Digital Ash Fevers Weeds Happiness Collection Haven’t listened to this one too much yet. I also prefer Ruminations, for whatever reason I like the more solo singer/songwriter vibe. Seems more fitting for what the songs are
The REAL definitive BE ranking: 1. Lifted 2. Fevers 3. Digital Ash 4. I'm Wide Awake 5. DITW 6. 5DA3 7. TPK 8. Noise Floor 9. Letting off the Happiness 10. Collection of Songs
Right after posting that, I'm not sure on where I placed The People's Key, should be higher. Need to revisit DITW and spend more time with the new one....that was very hard. I love all these records.
I'm not a ranking guy but this definitely sits with People's Key way down at the bottom for me. big shame, I loved Weeds
I just had an "aha" moment. I keep trying to place why there hasn't been a full album of his that I can't seem to sit through probably since Upside Down Mountain. I like at least a few songs on everything he's put out, but I really don't like most of the companions and each album for the last 10 years has been definitely hit or miss for me. I think it's Conor's voice. I loved the deranged youthfulness of it from basically 98-05 and then I think his sweet spot as a vocalist was around 07-11 or so, he still had the signature warble but there was a deep lushness to it, and I just feel like over the past decade it has regressed and is like...frail sounding or something. Something about the tone of it I just find grating at times now. Idk if anyone feels the same way, but I finally have figured out why his albums don't completely land with me anymore. I just put on Milk Thistle and Ahead of the Curve after listening to like half of Five Dice and my god it's such a noticeable difference to me. And I know people's voices change, it is what it is.
man the more i sit with this the more confounding it becomes. some days i resent it for not living up to my expectations and other days i feel like it's a really solid BE record with some slight imperfections. the opening run of bells and whistles through all threes is peak bright eyes. just falls off a bit from there for me.
alternating to “it was the best” on the final verse of bas jan ader after talking about sailing out to sea with someone who went lost at sea is classic conor haha