Bubblegum is cohesive in sound, and is a very specific record in Kevin’s discography. It’s a little grungy with a punk edge. It’s more in your face. Unapologetic. Brothers Blood has acoustic songs, duets, pop punk songs, epic rock tracks, cutesy songs about his dog, Spanish guitar feeling songs. Lots of variety of content and sounds. You can like one album more than another. Brothers Blood just lands and n more places on the musical map.
Bubblegum's cohesion is one of the things that elevates the album in his discog. It knows exactly what it wants to be.
sorry in advance disclaimer: i haven't listened to anything pre put your ghost to rest brothers blood put your ghost bubblegum instigator bulldozer between the concrete
Instigator is great, the alt power pop thing it's got going for it in the brasher moments is super cool, but the songwriting isn't like skin deep Superchunk imitation either, it's thoughtful and well done. the lyricism features some of his best stuff too in a wide range of subjects. No History, I Was Alive Back Then, Magic Magnet, the title track...good stuff. this feels like a self reflection record for sure, a take inventory to see how life is different record, and it works out so well
I feel like you'd be pretty into make the clocks move and split the country, split the streets (the former in particular) but in terms of overall cohesion I feel like Ghost is the start of a different era for him so I get it
Brother's Blood. Then move backward if you like the more solo/acoustic stuff and forward if you like the more full-band sound
I was gonna say Split the Country but like for the same reasoning lol. yr answer makes more sense start with matter of time
Would be curious to see Andy Hull & Kevin Devine do a write up on their favorite record from each other’s discography.
How is it a disservice to call something pop punk? I honestly think we’ve built up in our minds that all pop punk is shitty bro dudes stage diving, which is just simply not the case. Joyce Manor is pop punk. The Hotelier is pop punk. Pop punk doesn’t have to mean cookie cutter trash.
there is a code on this site and probably elsewhere that pop punk is bad and any band that once made pop punk and now makes good music is no longer a pop punk band. the genre does not change because we move the bands out of the genre as soon as they change their approach even slightly. there's no value judgement to this btw, just something kinda funny I noticed.
When I think pop punk I think of a more accessible kind of music. Chorus that are catchy to sing along to, accessible common themes. Pop punk isn’t an insult, but I wouldn’t have used that term to describe Bubblegum. Bubblegum feels more like garage rock, grungey, indie sound, with some political leanings. Kinda the opposite to pop. As in, She Can See Me is more poppy on Bulldozer than Bubblegum.
For some reason I always come back to Make The Clocks Move whenever I want to put on a KD album and can’t decide which. But yeah I still might say Brothers Blood is best.