Listened to this week's Riot Act podcast straight after listening to the album and this clip accurately sums it up way better than I could.
I’ve never seen a bad album be so completely more embarrassed by bad marketing. It’s like someone asked “what’s the dumbest fucking shit we can do to avoid talking about how bad the music is” and then they did it.
Pitchfork once reviewed a Jet album with a gif of a monkey pissing into its mouth. This weekend the publication gave this album - the 2020 version of that Jet album - a 6.5 wild how times have changed
The only bad thing about this album is that billboard. I had really low expectations going in because I wasn't a big fan of Fire Ready Aim (still one of my least favorites) or Oh Yeah (which is growing on me), though I love the title track. Was pleasantly surprised that I really, really enjoy this album all the way through. It's an absolute blast of energy, and it's really cool to hear them trying different things again after the admittedly safe RR (which I still think is better than this album, for the record). Outside of the singles, Meet Me on the Roof is an incredibly catchy song that I could easily see being a single (and it seems that it will since they released the video today), I Was a Teenage Teenager sounds like a Weezer song, but a good one, Stab You in the Heart and Sugar Youth rule, and Graffitia is one of the coolest songs they've made in a long time. Junkies on a High and Take the Money and Crawl are pretty cool but still have to grow on me, but I don't dislike either of them at all. I knew this album was going to be super divisive so I'm really glad I fall on the side that really enjoys it (though I'm probably one of the biggest fans of this band on this site to be fair). Like someone else said, it's a really cool detour in their discography, I've been wanting them to try something new for a while now and I'm very satisfied with the results. I highly doubt this is the sound they'll be sticking with from now on lol. Would actually be really cool for them to put out their punkiest album ever right after this, would love to hear that Billie also said that they left seven songs off the album because they didn't fit the vibe but they will all come out, I wonder if we'll get another EP before the tour. Really hope so
That billboard is bad. Also interesting....”no trap beats” but have zero problem using “bump”. A pretty commonplace word, that wasn’t always commonplace....if you know what I mean.
To be fair I don’t think that is a shot at trap or hip hop but at a certain type of top 40 rock groups
Mine did not - “This sounds like The Hives, but worse. I hated The Hives”. There was another band it reminded her of as well (probably Jet) that she couldn’t remember. She’s usually pretty good about giving most albums a chance, but this one got a rare “ok, turn it off”.
Hahah. Yeah it reminds me a lot of Jet, which makes me like it more, to be honest. My wife doesn’t necessarily enjoy the garage rock stuff, but for some reason she enjoyed this.
I would love to know all the gear they used to record this album. Bands should start listing that info in the credits of the songs. I’d geek out so hard.
Just finished my first listen of this. It's ... bland? While I admittedly love garage rock type stuff - everything on this album just blends into white noise (save for maybe the last track). I was so excited when I heard they were working with Butch (please see my avatar) so I really didn't expect to be so underwhelmed. Here's hoping they put the pseudo-teenage angst music to rest with the next album.
I have to say after first listen I hated it. After second listen didn’t like it. Third listen I started to be like this is actually kinda catchy. Now after multiple listens all I can say is that this album is so dumb and stupidbut I feel like that’s what they were going for and now I kinda like it...