in conversations it sounds like they think "said the king to the river" held up best over time. i'd say that the 3 song stretch from said the king to damaged goods is some of the best stuff they ever wrote.
Somewhere isnt THAT bad. I own it on vinyl and listen to it maybe once a year solely because it's a La Dispute album. If it wasn't in their discography I wouldn't ever touch it and would definitely not own it on vinyl.
I don't think Somewhere is ground breaking or nearly their best, but there is a lot of good stuff on there. A lot of hints of the direction they were heading. I was listening to it nonstop last week and was loving it all over again.
When I saw them three weeks ago I was surprised they didn't play anything from Somewhere. Wouldn't have minded Bury Your Flame or Said the King. Setlist was fire though.
I got Conversations III in the mail today from the merch subscription. 44 page book discussing Wildlife featuring lots of pictures of recording in Chicago and New York, as well as pictures documenting the production of the album art. Has a link to the first vocal take of King Park. Edit: also comes with a wildlife lapel pin.
Here's a pic. The book discusses how the writing process differed from Somewhere..., how they all learned restraint while writing Wildlife, and the reception of King Park Vs how the band sees the song..
They posted leftover items from prior subscriptions for current/prior subscribers. Anyone looking for anything? Quantities are super limited and prices are like $20/item. The Silver Metallic copy of Tiny Dots has only 3 left ($20), there are 39 copies of the Wildlife Conversations Book ($20) and only 8 copies of the Conversations II (Somewhere) flashdrive ($18). Also have the Melody hat, Objects in Space shirt, Somewhere and Wildlife pins, Searching for a Pulse poster, recycled tote bag, and the 13 insert (no 13 vinyl though).
I ended up buying a copy of the Wildlife Conversation book and it is a really good read. They even linked to the 1st vocal demo take that Jordan did for King Park which was cool.
My girlfriend has been getting me into a lot of great music since we started seeing each other haha... she finally managed to get me into La Dispute when I've never connected with them much before by showing me songs from Rooms of the House. I really dig that album now.