No, I don't. I guess I understand now why they'll never officially release it. Clearly we need to go to war with Men Without Hats.
thanks to a member in the vinyl thread here, i scored a copy of futures for 35$ from walmart.com. so excite!
I think Futures is the best sounding vinyl I own. The bass lines and background vocals pop SO much on vinyl and it really adds to the richness of the songs.
Couldn't see why it's not worth revisiting (as for their self-released album), I just did that this year for the first time in 15-20 years maybe and I had fun! Though it sounds like a different band. I do have a strong episode of returning to the more gritty beginnings of emo rock bands like Jimmy Eat World and have listened to Static Prevails a lot lately, even though I put some of the other albums much higher in my ranking.
The Record Store Day blue vinyl of Futures is one of the best sounding records I own. Meanwhile, the mass produced Bleed American is one of the worst sounding records I own.
I love how Damage sounds on vinyl. It's one of only two modern albums I have that I think sound noticeably better on vinyl than in other formats (the other is Jason Isbell's Southeastern).
I kind of agree with this. I like parts of Chase This Light and Integrity Blues but the Clarity-Bleed American-Futures run hasn't been matched. I think this also has a lot to do with the fact that I've been listening to this band since I was in middle school, and so those albums were what I heard at a much more formative time in my life.
As someone who got into the band in high school of 2013 in the Damage era, Clarity and Futures are unmatched. Bleed is good but it, or anything else in their catalogue, doesn’t touch those two.
I disagree that post-Futures material hasn't been up to par. My favorite / most emotionally resonant work by them is in fact their early stuff, so it's not as personally important to me... but in terms of songwriting and composition, it's hard to deny that Integrity Blues has some of their greatest work.