This band has done a good job of progressing just enough to keep things spicy but still retaining their own unique sound. I think album is their biggest departure so to speak, there's a lot of cleans and there's an acoustic guitar intro and a piano outro. Plus it's easily the darkest album they've ever written. It's almost goth influenced. I wonder if Keith or Andy and Jordan are Cure fans
The most recent 3 album have been pretty dark; this being darker than Ex being darker than FPU...don't let the rainbow artwork distract you from the album opening with "blow your fucking brains out", haha.
Yeah that lyric is pretty dark at face value. However, he means it in a way of silencing your brain from being pessimistic. “I learned pretty late in life that my own brain was my worst enemy. My inner monologue had done some terrible things to sabotage my own life. This song is about ignoring what you think and going by how you feel. The first line refers to blowing your brain out like a candle whose light is inferior to that of the sun.” FPU contains a lot of optimism, despite sounding very dark
Glad to see the NJA love. Doing a pretty thorough relisten through ETID's back catalogue and man TBD is phenomenal.
On TBD Leatherneck and Inrihab stick out to me for specific vocal deliveries, especially that ending of Inrihab
NJA was the the peak of all they'd been working up to at that point. They're transition to Ex Lives was a big one, and it worked. It's impressive that almost every move they've made in their career has been the right one.
Ex Lives is a phenomenal record but has the least amount of impact on me. Still had quite a bit of impact tho
TBD NJA FPU Ex HD! GP LNIT This is where I'm at before hearing Low Teens. I have to say though, outside of LNIT, I love them all pretty equally.
Partying Is Such Sweet Sorrow, Revival Mode, and Indian Giver are the standouts on Ex Lives to me. Heres my tier lists Low Teens Hot Damn New Junk Aesthetic Ex Lives The Big Dirty From Parts Unknown Gutter Phenomenon Last Night In Town but i love them all and this is a top 5 band for me so honestly this is arbitrary but i like the discussion this can breed and i just like gushing about this band a lot
From Parts Unknown and Ex Lives are the ones that have stuck with me the most. I can see this album getting up there with them as well. Lots of great stuff on here and I agree that this album keeps things fresh despite this being the band's eighth album. From Parts Unknown Ex Lives Hot Damn! New Junk Aesthetic The Big Dirty Gutter Phenomenon I only just listened to The Big Dirty and Gutter Phenomenon for my first time ever a few months ago. They've still only got one listen each, but I enjoyed both of them. Haven't listened to Last Night In Town yet.
TBD has remained my favorite for a long time because it's just so damn groovy. Don't get me wrong, I love fast ETID too, but I love the swagger that TBD has.
Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Battery is up there for ETID closers. Just a perfect note to go out on.