The lyrics are a bit on the nose, but I like it. Doesn't work acoustically, but this is good. I'm excited for the album.
Give me a whole album of this-tempoed songs and I bet we'll all be happy. I would imagine this is the only lockdown-themed song (I hope)
Came here to say please, please no songs about Covid/lockdown ever. And I see that has already been covered lol.
Frank is good friends and even produced a record by an artist Beans on Toast (I think I heard he was the Jay from Prufrock). His lockdown song Strange Days is a pretty good time capsule for this bit of madness (especially early on, although from an England resident perspective). I know we are all heart broken and burnt out on the subject matter, but it’s still here and historical. I do agree I don’t want to keep hearing more about it in a way, but this song is good.
Where are you guys hearing the studio version of The Gathering...??? I can't find it on Amazon Music...
Ahh, I didn't even think of YouTube. Thanks for the heads up. I think the song is fine. The lyrics are a little on-the-nose but I really don't mind at all. It kinda reminds me of some of the songs on PSFNP. Music is really good.
Having heard it a few times, I still kind of laugh at the lyrics to the first verse but the rest isn't too bad lyrically and musically it's pretty cool. I feel like it'll work really well live even (or perhaps especially) with the lyrics, which was probably the point anyway
Cliche pandemic songs should be felony-level crimes. No one needs to be reminded that the past year has been an epic shit show.
I also think if the lyrics and delivery of the first line didn’t happen I’d like the song like 20% more. But damn do I hate this lyrically haha Like it was said above, if this ends up being the worst song on an album and is a one off “we’re back together” show song then fine. But I’ve lost trust in Frank’s songwriting after the last 2 albums and now starting off the new cycle with this.
Sometimes it’s nice when novelty song are just one off released singles or an EP collection. I will say, MXPX have have released a few song that have reaction to pandemic lines and feelings in them and they’ve been great too. Peoples journeys have been different but have had common themes, so maybe themes are easier to relate to than such exact blunt lines.
It's really Frank's style though to address something like this directly with his lyrics. I'm more excited about the musical direction of the song than anything else. The lyrics don't really bother me any more than some of Frank's other very direct, on-the-nose lyrics. I'm very excited about the direction of this album between what the music sounds like so far and Rich Costey producing.
I’m with you. I just caved a listened since an album version of the single. Very direct, slightly campy maybe, but similar to stuff he’s done before for that in-your-face anthem feel in sort of like an “I wanna dance” kind of way. I don’t really have any production issues with a BMK, but I’m more excited to have Costey doing the album because I’d assume that Frank must have songs like a TDH or something he feels made him the right choice.
I didn't think I had issues with BMK's production - moreso just that the style and songwriting wasn't really what I was looking for from him - but that studio version of "Sand in the Gears" made me think I actually do. I remember hearing an early version of that, I think live & acoustic, and I remember thinking it sounded kinda clunky but if he fleshed it out and put it on an album it would probably be fine. That leaked studio version is really bad though.
Frank did a IG q&a you can view in his story currently, some takeaways; - new album is done but not mixed or mastered, he expects end of 2021 release - 14 songs - a “punk record”, listened to a lot of Hot Snakes and Rancid - The Gathering is “in the middle” in terms of aggressive tracks on the album - as mentioned already, same producer as TDH - has been working on a lot of these songs since before BMK