milkshake and I are on another planet it seems where the amulet is the third best circa record with the most in common with juturna and with jazz influences.
even above other technical mathy proggy post hardcore shit, circa stand high above many others in the realm of "how did they write this?" when I do deep listens. the podcast ep they did with brian mcternan on their patreon was very interesting. I think he is the secret sauce that people are referring to with those first two records. the crispyness was never matched again and yip/studio4 is notoriously and painfully muddy which doesn't lend itself to this band imo. Despite that, the yip circa records are still huge artistic accomplishments.
i think it’s their second best but don’t actually see much juturna in it at all outside of a couple moments. certainly don’t hear anything approaching jazz on it or juturna though
i go in phases of who i would say my absolute favorite band of all time is if i had to only choose one and in the last couple years i think circa has been sitting at that spot
jazz influenced examples of Juturna off the top of my head: the phrasing of glorious nosebleed chorus the verses of stop the car the entire song house of leaves mewithoutyou are another band of this ilk that have jazz influences on some of their work
I would hear you out that amulet is the second best in terms of songwriting but I think olg has much better and complimentary production.just look at your friends are gone. My God. Ant never sounded better than at salad days. Brian got incredible performances out of them and improved the demo ideas they had going in and arguably shaped their most iconic moments (the chorus of the difference between). I think yip did less to elevate the material they came into the studio with.
I don't love the album as much as you do (it's still very good!) but I definitely agree that it feels closest to On Letting Go while also being distinctly "new" in a sense, almost like a more matured version of the band revisiting the sound of those first two albums and throwing in some new tricks from everything they've learned in between. it's a really cool record.
Not even their worst albums are lacking these things imo. Like, even my least favorite -- Descensus -- still has a bunch of standouts and energy. It's just not my favorite version of the band, kind of like needing to be in a specific mood for BSN. But melodies, vibrance, and energy have never lacked with them imho
As a fan of that album, this is a wild take and electronic instrumentation does not always require a Radiohead comparison lol. Violent Waves and Descensus are probably their most experimental when it comes to breaking any self-imposed formula imo.
flesh and bone into the amulet is the best closing pair of an album next to compendium and dyed in the wool