I also think Jon’s change in style/improvement post-Downtown Battle Mountain 2 is a huge reason that I prefer everything after that
Happiness is definitely my favorite non-Tilian album, and it’s probably higher on my list than Artificial Selection and maybe Instant Gratification.
Here's how I see it: -Jonnny had tons of personality but couldn't really write hooks. Abusive POS to boot. -Kurt could write great hooks despite having a fairly forgettable voice. Plus, also was the best lyricist the band ever had. -Tilian has the best of both worlds, plus has range for days.
i can understand why some people wouldn't like Tilian's voice, but honestly his vocals are insane, like almost impossible, i think there are very few people who can consistently hit the notes that he does from a technical standpoint. he is obviously the best singer, even though some of his lyrics are a bit cringe (seems to be on purpose) and i could go for some more poetic lyrics like he wrote for tides of man. i will always love kurt, especially happiness, that album was very unique and some of DGD's best material. jonny was alright on DBM1, his voice has some soul to it for sure, but his performance on DBM2 was incredibly lame.
Jonny was extremely talented but could not write a hook to save his life like was mentioned earlier. That combined with him being the most awful type of human leads to me listening to his 2 albums with them very rarely. Kurt was good, and Happiness is probably still the most "out there" DGD has ever been, but I don't come back to it a ton. I love a good hook, so Tilian has worked for me from the beginning, and I've always liked his voice since Tides of Man, so this band is currently peaking for me. I can put his work with them on shuffle and enjoy 95% of the songs.
Still running through the discog, the first half of Care is a little clunky but my goodness if the bridge isn't the standard for funky DGD.
my first impression is yes, but I'm also not a massive fan of Prisoner, or at least, I don't go back to it much.
I wish I liked Tillian more, I tend to really like him on certain songs but I just can't deal with a whole album of him.
more bouncy and fun than Prisoner. Mess is crazy. He's doing his normal screaming, the more melodic stuff he was doing on Afterburner a lot, and he's borderline rapping in this.
Definitely the best lead single they've released since Mothership. Jon is especially at the top of his game here. Love it.
Yeah I remember there being a studio clip of just his singing and all the harmonies etc. on that line, pretty cool that that is this song!
Yeah not to spoil too much, but I'm really liking how some of Tilian's lines are just one vocal track, then some two, and others just maxed out with 3-4 different harmonies.