I like Foreign Cab Rides, Learned to Love Myself, Another Offensive Song and the closer. I still like every song on TBB more than any of those though and I thought that was a step down from FH, ha.
TBB is more fun and a lot more lyrically blunt which works so much better for them. Fake History gets a tad stale towards the end, the glossy choruses on tracks 8 and 10 can be a bit much if I'm not in the right mood.
i made the mistake of reading comments on Sputnik. They used "cuck" "black lives matter" and "leftist" in negative reviews. eeesh.
"People may read this and think of it as some overly righteous left leaning bullshit. That's cool. This ain't for you." - Jason on 'Another Offensive Song'
Same here. If anything I wish that I liked it more because I had been so excited for the release. Maybe it just takes a few more listens
I don't have any issue at all with someone liking it. It's when people start saying that it's a "really important" album or that it's "genre defining" - that's just bullshit.
I definitely wouldn't call it genre defining, but they took their time with the record and made what they wanted to make. I don't think the word gutless really fits as they write about topics that not a lot of bands in this "scene" talk about anymore (classism, race, etc) and relate those to the internal conflicts they face. Jason's lyrics alone make this album for me, but I get how not a lot of people relate to them on a personal level. From what I heard he only mixed the two songs on his site.
He spoke about similar topics on previous albums and they were very thought provoking. They're very flat here, imo, feels like Jason bunted it on here if I'm being honest.
I hate the "meaningful lyrics" argument. Writing about an important topic doesn't mean you're writing about it well. You can be very socially conscious and a shitty writer all at the same time. I have no horse in this race btw, I just wanted to say the above.
Yeah this is probably the most accurate way to describe my frustration with it as well. Songs like the Dope Beat and That Fear Fever were not only better tracks but also offered more insight into the experiences of marginalized groups than a track like Offensive Song or GMA
I'd say Jason is far from a shitty writer by most standards. But hey I'm usually wrong about this kind of stuff so idk.
I wasn't saying I think he's a bad writer - I don't at all - simply that "he writes about important shit" is irrelevant.
Ehh my point was that when Jason writes about these issues it seems genuine, well-thought out, and personal. I get what youre saying in that it doesn't make anything "good" on that criteria alone, but I'd argue that it makes it not "gutless" etc. I get the criticism that this album is receiving, but seeing people describe the record that way just doesn't make much sense to me.