Loved it on first listen. Going to listen a few more times before I switch to The Early November all afternoon before I see them tonight.
Watch the music video for 555 if you haven't already. It might grow on you more after seeing it, or possibly confuse your feelings even more.
Yeah the title track rules hard. I thought I wasn't going to dig it that much as the response seemed pretty muted especially since Criminal Energy comes directly after. But man...the guitars shred in that song.
Took a break from sharing my thoughts to catch up with this thread, but I loved Delivery. 555 and One Mil were solid, then the entire back half of the album has been amazing. Loving this album
This album is a slam dunk. It’s a touchdown. It’s a home run. It’s a hole in one. Guys, it’s a sports reference.
Congratulations could be like 8 or 9 minutes and extend that heavy outro and I'd be very okay with that.
first spin in: title track is pretty great. the rest is ok. a few songs have some highlights. don't get all the jazz / foaming at the mouth with the closer. i kept waiting for something shocking / amazing to happen and it never did lol
Wanted to wait to process my thoughts on this until I had a few listens under my belt so here’s some Ken Ramblings if you’re so inclined to read this is a weird thing that really doesn’t even make sense but the artwork just perfectly matches the mild intensity throughout the album. Idk it just matches the rawness of fall and just works perfectly totally agree with a lot of y’all that the two opening tracks are just slam dunks. They kinda remind me of “Futures” and “Just Tonight”. “Delivery” sounds like it came straight from the CTL era. A lot of CTL songs sit acoustic guitars on top of electrics as well as synth flourishes and sharp drum beats and this song matches up with that to a tee. It’s wonderful “555” and “One Mil” are strange in that they both pull from two other bands I’d never really imagine JEW taking influence from, at least not this late in their career. “555” feels like a modern FOB song, really it just feels like a very modern radio song in general. The way Jim says “everyday” and that little echo effect happens and just the way he holds the notes sounds like something Patrick Stump would croon over. “One Mil” sounds like a Pinkerton era Weezer song and it’s wonderful. “All The Way”, “Diamond”, and “Love Never” are a great stretch of JEW just doing what they do best. Not a ton to say on these other than they’re great JEW songs “Recommit” and “Congratulations” are, and I know this is going to be wild, two of the best songs the band has written. Ever. Period. This has got to be two of the angriest JEW songs and it’s interesting that they’re the closing tracks. “Recommit” is absolutely menacing and I can see it cracking it’s way into my top 5 favorite JEW songs. “Congratulations” feels like a logical sequel to “Pass The Baby” and just listening to band have an absolute meltdown during the latter half is stunning. I really love this album and this band.
when the song ended i honestly looked down at my phone to see if it stopped playing and / or if they were doing the old school "silence for a minute or two before coming back on" thing and found that the song was over lol. it's a good song but i wasn't blown away by what i heard *shrugs*
Nah but for real One Mil doesn't just bring the Weezer-style crunch, that vocal melody in the verses is 1000000% something Rivers would write and I love it. Very Weezer-style guitar solo in it too.
Yeah right? I love post reunion FOB so it’s great to hear it’s just not a well I could see JEW drawing from but they pull it off so well Don’t put that evil on me