Circa Survive - The Amulet (September 22, 2017) Album • Page 133

Love this album but what holds it back from being my favorite is the lyrics a bit, not that they're bad or anything, just they're so indeterminate and wordy at times. I struggle to remember them when I want to sing along (albeit badly and out of key) in my car.

 

Agree to disagree.

 

Funny, I think this is some of Ants most memorable writing for a while. A lot of these lyrics hit me very hard.

 

I'm glad you connect with them - as I said, I think they're alright! But I feel they're distant to me, in some ways it's like the relationship I have w/ say, Coheed lyrics. Not that they compare in any way intrinsically (they really couldn't be different), but rather just with both I feel a little bit outside, separate from them. Idk if that makes any sense! But I couldn't get as strong a personal connection w/ Amulet as the other albums and I genuinely think it's this reason.

 

This isn't going to match their first two records for me, but it's still damn impressive for 13 years into their career and I'm super glad they made it.

 

its almost as good as my favorite circa song, lazarus.

 

they're very imagery and feeling based. some are more straightforward than others. on the whole this album lyrically makes a lot more sense than, say, juturna. something like lustration, with this line

Inside the catacomb, the marble's colder than ice
Our match is damp, lit with a separate hand
I see into your world, you make no effort to hide
The tourniquet, candles in a salt ring will dance
You don't have to repent tonight at all

that's some extremely vivid imagery and its more about what those phrases and words elicit in you emotionally than any specific meaning. it reminds me of how justin vernon writes. christian holden had some lyrics like that on goodness as well. personally ive found the lyrics on this album the most ive connected emotionally since blue sky noise, easily. i remember more lyrics on this album (almost all of them really) than both descensus and violent waves combined, and at this point since im getting pretty old and don't listen to it regularly like i did when i was a teenager, i can barely remember half of juturna, a far more ambiguous and hard to parse album lyrically. then again, the amulet was my album of the year for a reason, and a lot of it had to do with what i was going through last year and how this album really brought me out of some really, unfathomably dark spots. the title track in particular really hits me on a personal level:

My voice is lost, inherently violent
We already made our casket stand
Trust when you’re dead, you wanted it so bad
That you didn't see how fucked it was
All the pulses were a line, anesthetize you waste away
In the city you wept a grave, decay

that just so accurately hits an emotional note and state of mind i was in for much of the end of last year that its scary. what im trying to say in a very long winded fashion, give these lyrics a chance and really dig into them.

 

I’ll spend more time with them. It’s funny you mention Vernon, who’s lyrics I love, I think that’s actually a good comparison since I do know where you’re coming from a bit with that.

 

I'll echo what Jake said by saying that I think it can be a bit if a fool's errand to try to put a specific meaning to the words and lyrics Anthony pens. I agree that it's much more about the feeling they bring out of you. That said, maybe there are some lyrics in every song that I relate to, but maybe I don't relate to the entire song. I get a very similar feeling from Deftones and Chino's lyrics. I love the vivid imagery that both Anthony and Chino can create and how they can elicit such a strong reaction out of atmospheric rock music. It gives me music to truly get lost in and connect with.

 

like everything about the new record outside of Rites.
Still haven't come around on that.

 

It doesn't do much on it's own for me, but I look at it as the outro to the first part of the album, since the last 3 songs chill the vibe down a lot.

 

Rites goes off

 

The vocals are kinda grating for me.
But I still listen to it everytime...sooooo

 

At this point the bridge of Rites is one of my favourite moments this band has ever made.

 

Rites has really grown on me. Still in my bottom 2, along with The Hex, but it's a total jam. I just feel like its placing is a bit odd. I'm beginning to think that maybe it's because of Stay. I think if Stay and At Night were swapped then I'd feel different

 

Tracks 6-8 flow weird imo

 

"Rites" isn't the kind of song I usually want this band to write, but it works pretty well on this record and I dig it.

"Flesh and Bone," meanwhile, is even farther from the kind of song I want from Circa, and I can't get into it at all. Replacing it with another adventurous, spacey tune more like Premonition/Stay/Hex could've raised this LP from like an 8/10 to 9/10 for me, I think.

 

Flesh and Bone is what I want from every band

 

Rites is what I imagine they were going for on descensus, I’m surprised people don’t like it.

 

Flesh and Bone is my favorite on the album

 

I think it’s just me. Ha

 

Flesh And Bone could be my favorite from this album on any given day

 

Great 1-2 punch of flesh and bone right into the amulet

 

I can understand the complaints about F&B being kind of straightforward and maybe a bit bland, but it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOo absurdly pretty. Like how does your brain not just melt hearing Anthony's falsettos and the shimmering guitars at the end? Sweet fuck.

 

This is a weird album. It probably won't make it into my regular circulation.