I think NJA sounds completely different than TBD. And I think EX Lives was a continuation of the New Junk sound.
Best Buy probably had it maybe in a weird spot or maybe no one put it out(for shame). Every store should have got them in. I work at one as an inventory/merch manager. Heck, tell me what city and I'll look tomorrow to see if the system says they have some.
Having just gone through their discog while at work today, NJA. Ex Lives is def a new sound but NJA is the first that you can tell a shift, so I base it more on that. Also on my listening to discog again TBD is so fuckin weird in an awesome way. Like it kind of seems like a bit of its own anamoly in their history with how groovy it is.
Have stewed on this record for 2 full days now in multiple contexts (gym, car, house lol) and I've concluded it's just as awesome as the hype has made it out to be. I loved FPU as well, and really all their discography with NJA as a personal favorite, but LT sees them pushing the boundaries in new directions all around. The dissonant and heavy (Fear and Trembling, Coin Has a Say), the more traditional rock sound (Two Summers, C++), the downright heart-wrenching (Petal), the speed driven tracks (Glitches, Cult) are all pushed to new limits, absolutely killer. Production is great, Davison is a beast on drums, Andy, Jordan, and Steve have wrote phenomenal riffs, and lyrically, Keith's best performance. Maybe it's the brutal subject matter of the record, but I think the cohesive lyrical theme has a lot to do with giving this album an all-around significance they hadn't been able to achieve Also, Two Summers and Religion of Speed have the tastiest Keith melodies in the choruses. Hot fucking damn. Really glad we got to see more singing on this one, it's not like they let up on the screaming lol.
Just re-listened to the whole thing while following along to JB's tweets. So cool. Also, I've listened to Map Change about 50 times. Maybe more. 500? Maybe.
That would have been even more awesome. Also, in his live tweeting of the record Jordan mentioned he wrote the riff in It Remembers wanting it to sound like a True Detective theme song, which is perfect. Makes me want a 3rd season if this song opens it lol.
I liked this better after a second full listen, but still couldn't rank it above any of their other albums. Outside of the lyrics, I don't understand the love for Map Change. It's good-not-great. I wish there wasn't so much singing on this album.
This album is most definitely gung-ho heavy and screaming while still having singing. I've listened to the album about 8 times now I think? It's becoming closer and closer to being my top album from them. It's at least #2
I think the balance of screaming/singing is great. There is still far more screaming here than singing, and the two singing songs are still heavy and energetic. It Remembers is easily in my top 5, in fact.
this is absolutely as aggressive as fpu it just isn't as fast. you can be aggressive without every song having a break neck bpm
Can't stop listening to It Remembers. I love how it keeps you waiting for some massive screamed vox section...and keeps you waiting lol.
I see where you're coming from, but I think having a couple songs with strictly singing really highlights not only how successfully they can do the more traditional "rock" sounding songs, but how intense the heavier numbers are (Cult, 1977, Glitches). And there's ones like C++ that show the mix so well. Same thing I love about the Smashing Pumpkins: knowing when not to make a song bigger than it already is.