There's just nothing about it I really enjoy, I think it has weak melodies and lyrics compared to what came after and musically it's nothing interesting either. "Bend to Squares" is a decent song but that's the best thing the album has to offer really.
Yeah, Bend To Squares is probably the best song from it. It's probably only above Codes & Keys if I were to rank, SAA just kind of sounds more like a band with potential than one fully realized.
I do like that song, that's my second favourite on there. I don't think it's a bad album or anything, it's just not great. I wouldn't put "Your Bruise" or "Bend to Squares" anywhere near the best stuff on the albums that came after it.
I burned all of their records for my girlfriend and she has Airplanes playing everytime I get in her car so that's helped that album bump up in my rankings. At this point, I love old school Barsuk DC over their Atlantic era stuff, but I love every record of theirs besides C&K.
For me: Transatlanticism > Plans > Kintsugi > Narrow Stairs = Photo Album = Codes And Keys. I'm currently going further back through their discography though.
listened to an old 100 Words or Less podcast, and they compared it to Sufjan's Age of Adz as a transitional album, and I thought was a good description.
I've loved basically everything I've heard from them, although I do seem to slightly prefer their more polished material. I'll be listening to that very soon.
Do you remember the JAMC? And reading aloud from magazines? I don't know about you, but I swear on my name they could smell it on me I've never been too good with secrets
Is Kintsugi generally hated around here? I liked a lot about it, it missed Chris Walla but had some really strong tracks.
Yeah, Kintsugi for me was half amazing, half stuff I'd put at about the level of Codes and Keys. Still really enjoy it though.
Kintsugi is a great album but I do think it's a bit inconsistent and doesn't really contain the highs their best albums have.
"Good Help" is my least favourite on there and I'd take a good number of Codes songs over it, the other two absolutely.
No Room In Frame, Black Sun, The Ghosts of Beverly Drive, and Little Wanderer are all better than anything on Codes & Keys. The rest of the album is kind of all over, and the acoustic two songs placement is kind of bad and drags the album down a bit by ruining the flow.
That makes sense then. Give Up is a super special album too. I'm always happy to see Death Cab releasing favorites for people even after like 20 years.
Give Up would be my number 2 as well, just slightly ahead of Plans. "Everything's a Ceiling" is my second favourite on Kintsugi. Love that song.
Bizarre, it's so catchy. I kinda lied though, I forgot about "You Are A Tourist" - that's maybe their best song since Transatlanticism.
meh, I don't think that song is very good. It's decent but it wouldn't even crack my top three on Codes. I'd take every single song on Plans and Narrow Stairs over it.
"You Are A Tourist" is one of the few songs that I actually like on Codes & Keys. Most of that album is boring.