Lydia Band • Page 18

Man I really thought people were exaggerating for comedic effect, but 3.5 songs in and this truly is appalling. It feels disrespectful to the original to even continue listening.

 

Pretty much this, yeah.

Thing is, if instead of re-hashing the past like this, if Leighton would have dug deep on the writing, hopefully in concert with some new musicians to fill it out more as a band project, Lydia could be where Copeland is post Ixora and Blushing in terms of album quality, and I genuinely believe that.

If you want to be real sad today, think about what an Ixora-level Illuminate follow-up would sound like. And then weep for the fact that we're never getting it.

 

It breaks my heart, for real. He clearly still has the voice for it - he really needs a solid band around him, or at least a guitar player who can get as weird as Steve did on their best albums.

Gates seems to not be a band anymore, I wish there was a world where Leighton gave Ethan a call (or hell, the whole band) and did an album with vibes like that.

Or like I said earlier, I think this project would have been received so much better if it was like this version of Stay Awake, with just Leighton and Mindy with a piano or acoustic guitar on all the tracks, and not all of the stuff they did instead. Would also make a lot more sense if it was on an actual anniversary of the album and not some arbitary year in June. Do a livestream with high quality piano renditions of the album, respecting the original melodies, and I'd be all in. Not this.

Or do what Copeland did and choose songs from the entire discography if you want to do a reworks album.

I really have mixed feelings, because I'm sure Leighton knows most of this, and might just be feeling stuck or tapped out in general on new music, or the prospect of putting something out and getting back on the road is daunting as a father, or any other reasons, but man, this release is a huge miss for me. I feel for you man, music is hard. but damn.

 

Well yeah, it's easy to tell bands what they should be doing, but essentially let's just let him do whatever he wants - I think this project is worth listening to once or twice, but maybe it will land for some other people, and for most of us here (from what I'm seeing in the comments) it might also initiate a spike in revisiting the original hahh

Ps. always loved gates after that (while they're mentioned), and States as well, but yeah, mostly gates - one of the best bands really!

 

Haven’t listened yet, and I defend the band a lot here, but it has long seemed to me that Leighton just seems very removed from that era of his life, and I imagine that makes putting out a project like this easier. Sure people grow and change, but idk, this seems extra.

I’ve been to a couple shows where he just rushed through a partial play-through of this is twice now. What are we minimizing a discog highlight for? For…when it gets dark out? Georgia? I don’t want them to be beholden to playing old stuff, i find it nauseating when bands do that, but when you look at it all in context it makes even a benign, understandable money play like this feel, well, worse.

 

It legit sounds like AI wrote this completely devoid of understanding what made the original so great. It semi annoyed me listening to it.

 

sucks. but it got me to revisit the first two albums. so.

 

nailed it.

 

I listened to assailants, Paint it Golden and Run Wild last night lol. One of those, “am I crazy, this guy made good music right?” Things.

 

I think TikTok fried his brain. Dude’s social media presence is hella annoying

 

This right here. Had to actually unfollow their accounts because it was getting too weird for me. Felt like I was obviously not his target audience anymore.

 

Sad we never got to hear the full Saturn Hands record from Steve. I talked to Ethan years ago about it and he said it was some crazy shit.

 

Seeing these Leighton ads that are like "let me help you with your songs!" are just getting funny at this point, dude needs someone to help with his own damn songs.

or maybe this is just a stealthy way for him to find new bandmates and collabs