1) Instant Gratification 2) Mothership even though I love Happiness, I’m a Tilian fanboy. IG was a step up over AS, and I felt like Tilian was able to really bring more of his pop sensibilities to the table that go ‘round.
Instant Gratification - This album is bangers, straight through. Not a single skipped beat, just fun songs. Mothership - This is DGD's magnum opus. It's a perfect balance between their experimental impulses, & their pop instincts. It's quite possible they'll never top this, but as long as they keep trying, we'll keep getting great music.
Current Totals: Happiness - 5 Instant Gratification - 3 Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean (EP) - 0 Mothership - 8
Instant grat. It took me a long time to appreciate most of the non-singles from this. Mothership. As above, the DGD magnum opus.
Happiness Mothership On a personal note, I like Happiness and Instant Gratification about equally, with some partiality to IG. The deciding factor is that Happiness is arguably Kurt's best with the band. I'm not sure IG is Tilian's best with the band, as good as it is and as much as I like it. So even though I really like IG, I have to give it to Happiness. Mothership is Tilian's best with the band, and probably one of their best in general. And that's saying something because IG is already pretty solid. But Mothership takes all of that to the next level and everything just sounds and feels better. IG ends up feeling like a really sweet warm up. WISIRO is a cool album title, and I like the mood they set on some of these songs, but no way is it better than Mothership lol.
Listening to the Tree City Sessions version of Alex English. Alex English is 100% what made me fall in love it DGD when I was a junior in High School in 2008. I love Inspire the Liars and it deserves to win, but Alex English takes me on a trip.
Tree City Sessions is one of my favorite records I own, I’d love for them to do some other unusual release like that
Final Totals: Happiness - 7 Instant Gratification - 6 Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean (EP) - 0 Mothership - 13 --------- Round Two: 1) Happiness vs. Downtown Battle Mountain II 2) Downtown Battle Mountain vs. Acceptance Speech 3) Mothership vs. Artificial Selection 4) Dance Gavin Dance vs. Afterburner
Downtown Battle Mountain II - I always was somewhat partial to the Jonny records, despite the person he's shown himself to be in recent years. His melodies are just so cathartic, and I think Will was just absolutely shredding all over this record. I like Happiness, but I think Kurt's melodies are a bit too drippy and dour, and the production is inconsistent. Downtown Battle Mountain - This album is a scene classic. The choruses are huge, and it's just packed with raw potential and creativity. Mothership - I could go on for days about how great this album is, but none of you have voted against it, so you already know. That being said, it was my introduction to DGD, so I may have nostalgia glasses on, but I don't think so. Afterburner - I honestly never bonded with self-titled, and I have no idea why. Zoloft & Skyhook are the only songs I love. But Afterburner resonated with me immediately, it has less huge defined choruses than Mothership, but makes up for it with catchy riffs and hooks sprinkled throughout, making it a perfect sampling of all of the creativity that makes DGD great.