Yea I listen to this one over salutations for some reason. It’s just got this rare honest quality that’s difficult to describe.
I feel now that this record is one of his very best, it's hard to say something like that given how incredible RM/SS, fevers, and i' m wide awake are but this album truly showcases his innate strengths as a songwriter and lyricist and is ironically the first time he masters vulnerability Also I think with time it's clearer to see how outstanding his work is, he's not the most consistent artist by any means but he has this effortless skill for folk/pop song structure and poignant encapsulations of mundane life and it's unfortunate that his talent's always been shadowed (through no fault of his own) by his artistic persona For some reason I always relate him as an artist to modest mouse, though there are no obvious musical similarities. Between this and the unreleased BE stuff he seems to be at a peak again, which is exciting
still find this one pretty boring and one-note for the most part. I don't think Salutations is a huge step forward overall, but those versions of the songs are definitely better
My introduction to these songs was seeing him play them in a huge church and that experience definitely helped me appreciate them as much as I do I could see this record coming off like that if you're not into its lyrics but the minimalism to me just makes the emotional weight of the narratives heavier, it resembles the life of the world to come a little bit and specifically genesis 30:3
its cool but i dont think it's spend money on the new pressing cool, assuming/hoping this new edition will be available streaming.