Is Over Before it Began a sort of lyrical nod to I Know It's Over by the Smiths? I know Barry is a big Smiths fan
Came here to say how much I still love this album and how happy I get every time I put it on. That is all
Real talk there really isn't a noticeable difference in songwriting quality until about Cody, even then I'm iffy about that statement. The differences to me are in the genre experiments, Barry's vocals, and the production. Feel like they change the sound just enough but for the most part the quality is consistent (ly great) and the running threads make it seem more so to me. Like, Cody is ostensibly the pop album but their best pop song (imo) is in Of All Things, maybe NHA. Maybe I just like them too much to see though who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯