agreed. I really like how he branches out on it juuuust enough. It's a little rougher around the edges for a longer stretch of time than he usually does on albums, but if you peel back the noise or aggression it's still just top notch songwriting. And he just sounds so confident vocally, which he has for a few albums now but it's cool to really see it with that more aggressive side of him.
I would say the one weakness of Bubblegum -- and it's not REALLY a weakness, just like a minor annoyance -- is that "She Can See Me" is a completely different song than that Black Sabbath-y intro would leave you to believe, and it's not that different from the version on Bulldozer (but I'd have to make sure for that second part and listen to it again). For some reason I really want to OWN Bubblegum and Bulldozer and I don't own the latter so...I listen to it less than I'd like to :(
I might be in the minority on both of these, but Between The Concrete and Clouds is my favorite Kevin Devine album, and I like Bulldozer just as much or a little more than I do Bubblegum.
I think that intro fits the song just fine, especially since they call back to it later in the song and then bring it back fully with the outro jam. It also functions just as well as an outro to "Cabybara" and is the perfect bridge between those 2 tracks. And to your second point, they still are the same song, so I don't know how different you expect them to be. But they are different enough, especially the guitar work and when you add in the intro/outro to the Bubblegum version. I'm guessing that he couldn't decide which album he wanted the song to go on and liked both versions enough to include it on both. And I think you can hear how much fun the band had jamming it on the Bubblegum version, as well as the Jesse Lacey influence.
Hm. BTC&C = Bubblegum > Brother's Blood > Bulldozer > Ghost > Split > Clocks > Circle I've never really cared for Make The Clocks Move, which I know is blasphemy around these parts. It's a good album, don't get me wrong, but it just always strikes me as a little immature, compared to everything that came after. Of course, maybe I think that because I came to Kevin through Brother's Blood (his opening set for Manchester Orchestra before that album came out made me a fan for life - one of the best I've ever seen) and Put Your Ghost to Rest. I usually just listen to the live versions of those songs . . . BTC&C and Bubblegum get the edge for me because of how cohesive they are. They don't have the stylistic hops of Brother's Blood (which is one of the cool things about that album for me, but the second half doesn't have the same impact as the first, for me), they're more succinct, and his writing grows more and more poetic while staying characteristically direct. I love talking about Kevin's music, so excuse the rant. Barely any other artist has had the same impact on my life as he has.
Between the Concrete & Clouds > Bubblegum = Bulldozer > Brother's Blood > Split The Country, Split the Street > Put Your Ghost To Rest > Make the Clocks Move > Circle Gets the Square Between The Concrete and clouds is my favorite, which is a recent thing, there's an atmosphere and a consistency to that record. Off-Screen is a perfect opening opening song, I love the waltz styling on Sleep Walking Through My Life, and obviously 11-17 is just a masterpiece. Bubblegum and Bulldozer are two albums I can't separate from each other in my head, on one hand I love the kind of indie-punk sound of Bubblegum, and on the other I love the more intricate and laid back music on Bulldozer. Both feature some of Kevin's best lyrics too. Brother's Blood is kind of all over the place. I remember an interview where Jesse Lacey said he noticed Kevin's albums kind of growing into this split where each album was becoming more like Goddamn Band songs, and Kevin songs, and I think Brother's Blood is the best example of this. It doesn't feel very cohesive, but it has some of Kevin's best stuff still like the title track, Another Bag of Bones and All Of Everything Erased. The rest of the albums I love, but I don't listen to them nearly as much as I do Brother's Blood and on stuff. I have favorites on each (except maybe Circle) and their a cool listen every once in awhile. Split, Ghost and Clocks all move around with each other a lot on my rankings though.
I discovered Kevin between the release of Make The Clocks move and Split The Country. Ballgame is my favourite Kev song, but I feel that Brother's Blood is his complete album. It has acoustic numbers, it has fast songs, personal songs, political songs, and a long gem of a title track. I just love the balance. He has a lot of great songs, and I get why people would have different favourites. I just think lots of fans discovered him later or through his friendship with Jesse and Brand New and Manchester Orchestra, or people prefer his acoustic stuff or full band. Wonder where his new album will fall musically?
I weirdly found out about Manchester Orchestra and Kevin Devine through Bad Books. Haha Part of me feels like I'm the only one. Musically there's a couple clips that were posted, it kind of reminds me of Between the Concrete and Clouds mixed with Bulldozer.
i found kevin outta high school when he released put your ghost to rest. i was stocking groceries overnight and listened to that shit on repeat every night. then brothers blood came out and it blew my mind. nobody has been able to sum up addiction for me the way kd does on it's only your life. growing into my late 20s as someone constantly fucking up and trying to do better, it's a song that will always be with me.. and the release at the end of brothers blood is hands down the best 2 minutes kd has ever recorded. absolutely fuckin haunting.
I'm not saying that it doesn't fit -- once you've heard the song, it flows fine -- I'm just saying it goes into a direction that is completely unexpected for me. Like, the intro sounds like a stylistic shift for Kevin, but the actual bulk of the song is pretty firmly within his wheelhouse, so it's a weird transition for that reason only, not that it isn't good. That's why I said it's less of a weakness and more of an annoyance, ya get me? I was stoked for Kevin to get super heavy and then it didn't really happen. That being said, song is great anyway so it didn't need to happen. And I expected them to be more different in their arrangement. Like, I suppose since he originally described Bulldozer, and "She Can See Me"s function specifically as a folkier foil originally, that's what I expected it to sound like on first listen. Something sparse, you know? My criticism isn't that it's a bad song, just that I guess I wanted a wider divergence for the sake of seeing his take on the same thing from different angles. It's nitpicky because I don't really think there's anything wrong with these albums, haha. I see people ranking his discog here and not once did I see Matter of Time soooo I'm disappointed in all of you. My ranking is Everything > Circle. I just hold all of his records in really high esteem and find them really hard to rank. Circle is what got me into him, but is just weaker songwriting compared to literally anything else in his discography. Shout out to KD for having such a stunning discog, shout out to BTCC for being underrated as hell but still being so good, and shout out to KD for never letting me down musically (so far).
Also since I'm thinking about it, if someone wants to elaborate on why maybe Between the Concrete and Clouds falls flat for them, I'd love to hear it. It's an opinion I hear a lot and I just don't understand. It is such a good record. Is it because it follows up Brother's Blood? That's my theory.
It's was a full band album following an album with variety. It was also an album with a 90's vibe shift, and sometimes that runs the risk of things blending together. The same can happen with an all acoustic album. I like records that have variety and high and low points and variety personally. Between The Concrete and Clouds, 11-17, A Story a Sneak, and I Used to Be Someone are four of my favourite songs from the album (there are other good songs too). But, if you've ever heard 11-17 or Between The Concrete and Clouds acoustic Kevin really should have recorded them that way. Just amazing. Especially 11-17. His guitar work on that song acoustic is insanely good, and that does get a bit lost on the hazy guitar sound on the record sometimes. I do like it though as a whole.
I'll listen to it again today and get back to you. It's not because it follows up brothers blood to me, haha, because while I agree it's got a lot of his best songs, that album isn't very consistent to me
It's up there for sure. I'm going to try and post a video of him performing Brother's Blood in Nashville last year, at a show with Brand New and Manchester Orchestra. Kevin Devine stole that show. Video to come shortly. (hopefully)