This is 100% Pedestrian Verse part two. I bloody love that album so much, so even a pale imitation of it (which this absolutely is) is still great to listen to. It's definitely an album where the band is standing still though. They've never made the most major stylistic shifts before, but there's nothing on this record that they haven't already touched upon on PV. I like it, because I like every single thing they do, but this is definitely their weakest since Sing The Greys.
^^ Prettymuch exactly my thoughts - I was really expecting them to stretch themselves under Dessner's production and this album is safe as baby food. The album art looks like Biffy Clyro, the music sounds like a soft follow-up to The Winter of Mixed Drinks, and this is a disappointingly weak effort. "Woke Up Hurting" is a jam though.
Kind of relevant, this is a band some of you may enjoy if you like Frightened Rabbit, same mournful British sound and frankly these guys take a lot more interesting directions that I wish FR had tried out on this album. Think they've been around a lot longer than FR too.
Alright. Going to deliberately try and give this new release another chance in advance of the show I'm attending this Sunday in Pittsburgh. Here goes nothing...
Yeah I feel like their live show got me more into this album. I don't revisit often but I really like it when I do
I am hoping that by seeing them play some of the new songs, I will like the album more. After my revisit of it again yesterday, it still isn't hitting me that well. There were a few tracks that peaked my interest - Get Out, Woke Up Hurting, Blood Under the Bridge, Wait 'Til the Morning. It might just not be the right time for me to be listening to sad bastard music given that its sunny and summertime. haha. I am sure the show will be great. They have killed it every time I've seen them.
You were right. They just started in Pittsburgh. Awesome. Great show all around. Seems they really enjoy playing Mr. Smalls venue in Pittsburgh. Had a fantastic crowd.
Still Want to Be Here is the best track on this recor in my opinion. The only one that doesn't venture too far in to PV retreads.
I don't like that song at all. Probably my least favourite actually, ha. Between "I Want to be Sober" and "Death Dream" for my favourite.
Pretty bitter they couldn't play Osheaga due to flight problems. The singer showed up later to do an acoustic set, but he was given no mic or speakers. I was maybe 7 feet away and couldn't hear him. Didn't help he was set up in the wide open when you could hear noise from at least one stage the whole time.
their most recent Facebook post: "I will keep this short and to the point, there's no real need to go into great detail. I had a bit of a meltdown on Saturday, for various reasons. Some of you may have witnessed it, some of you may not have and some of you may not really care, but I said some regretful things on Twitter. I'd like to attempt to set that straight. Sometimes when life goes awry the reaction is to destroy and say "fuck it all" and unfortunately that's what I did. In spite of this, it's not the end of our band and (in the sobering light of day) I don't truly believe the things I said. On the plus side I have a greater appreciation of the pitfalls of mixing alcohol, depression and social media. In case you were in any doubt, it's a terrible idea. For now, the priority is recovery, so regretfully we have decided to cancel our appearances at Haldern and Rock Am See. Sometimes there are more important things than playing shows and we wouldn't be pulling out if we didn't think it was necessary. Lastly, I'm sorry if I caused any alarm. If you have ever been through a low-point in life I'm certain you'll understand. If you haven't ever been through the muck, you are a lucky bastard. Scott"
Scott sent out a flurry of tweets Saturday night saying Frightened Rabbit is a lie and he uses the hurt he's caused people to fuel it and he's a terrible person. Drunken nonsense obv. Hope he's feeling better.
I recently listened to this album on my drive in to work after having not listened to it for a while. Granted, my version of this album has a couple of the bonus tracks swapped in instead of a few album tracks. That being said, I enjoyed this a lot when it first came out and I think it has only grown on me more over time. This past listen through I thoroughly enjoyed it. It could possibly be in my top 5 for this year. I haven't really given my rankings that much thought yet. Has this album grown on anyone else, or is the consensus that it didn't really live up to the potential of this band recording with this producer...? I feel like most people were let down by this...
I haven't gone back to it at all and doubt I will honestly. There's a few songs I can see myself listening to be every now and then but overall I was definitely super disappointed with this.
Not a bad record by any stretch, but it's a vastly inferior sequel. Following PV would have been tough regardless, but this definitely feels like a half-arsed version of it. Better than Sing The Greys, but weaker than the others.
Doesn't stand up to their best material, but a good album in its own right. It's grown on me over the year.
Listen regularly and probably like it as much as PV. there's a good chance it'll be my number 2 or 3.
I loved this record when it came out - haven't revisited it as much as I expected to but that's mainly because there's so much good music this year. I imagine it will get more spins as winter kicks in. ("Lick of Paint" should have definitely been on the album though... that song is so good) I'd probably rank: Winter Midnight Painting Pedestrian Greys