Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface (July 28, 2017) Album • Page 187

I thought we were calling that Dad Rock, now?

 

Dad rock is stuff like seether or nickleback, the stuff I'm thinking of is more of the stuff on alt nation it's mostly synths with some guitars occasionally worked in

 

I think it's both.

 

Day drink is way cooler of a lyric

 

Definitely not a household name but I feel like they have a strong following. They've been headlining decent-sized venues (1k-1500k) for years and as mentioned earlier, Cope charted well (13) and Simple Math was 21. They also appeared on Letterman 4x and were just on CBS's Saturday morning show and have gotten some good national publicity with Black Mile, which is why I'm surprised this didnt chart higher.

 

Thrice for sure became a household name among people into "Normal Dad rock" with Black Honey and Hurricane. I hear those on my local rock station that normally only always plays Metallica, Offspring, Volbeat and like two other bands all day.

 

95% of people I know have no idea who this band are. I can possibly name maybe two people I know who know them

 

Everyone I know knows who they are bc I don't stop talking about them

 

Yup. Most of my friends know them as 'that band you like.'

 

Which is sort of how all the bands I like are, come to think of it.

 

Manchester Orchestra: A Black Mile to the Surface Album Review | Pitchfork

7

 

Well to be fair to myself, it's more a misanticipation than a mishearing.

 

For persective, on ManOrch charting. Maybe this is a non sequitor, but here are some Facebook 'like' numbers for bands in this 'scene' (loosely defined, obviously):

Green Day - 31.2 mil
Paramore - 26.2 mil
Blink - 10.4 mil
Fall Out Boy - 9.4 mil
Weezer - 3.4 mil
Twenty One Pilots - 3.2 mil
Jimmy Eat World - 1.5 mil
Taking Back Sunday - 1.3 mil
Brand New - 921,000
Thrice - 412,000
Motion City Soundtrack - 369,000
Gaslight Anthem - 316,000
Manchester Orchestra- 312,000

Setting aside the obvious HUGE bands (GD, Paramore, blink), ManOrch has a fraction of the fans of bands like JEW and TBS and Weezer and Twenty One Pilots. And while TOP sells super well, and Weezer always is in the top 5ish, that isn't the case with other bands. JEW's last 3 records peaked at 11, 17, and 14 (respectively), and they have nearly 5 times the social media audience. TBS's last three have been at 17, 10 and 36, and they're at 4 times bigger.

Maybe it means nothing to look at Facebook likes. And maybe those bands had disappointing sales too. But I guess for a band the size of ManOrch, I wouldn't have expected an automatic top 25 debut. And Black Mile doesn't have a big single, doesn't have a radio friendly sound, and doesn't have a label backing it beyond what Hull and company do. I wouldn't have guessed much in the way of sales (though I would have been happy).

 

I always read the pitchfork reviews and I'm
Always amazed at the disconnect between the writing and the score. But I still read it.

For all of Ian's critique of Andy as a lyricist, specifically around themes of paradox, he seems to fall into a similar trap (or at least dissonance) within his review.

At least it got a 7. Lol. I can find comfort in that. Even though it's meaningless

 

I would have bet a lot of money this would have outsold Thrice by a large margin. Shows what I know.

And PTM's Feel it Still is a global smash hit. Didn't see that coming either.

 

A solid 93 in the UK charts...

I'm not sure how popular they are here these days. I know they've played Reading/Leeds festivals and I know they get featured on the more alternative shows on Radio 1 but no one I know has ever heard of them.

 

Same, I have maybe two friends into them. They also only play the tiny stages at Reading/Leeds in afternoon slots.

 

Yeah, I presumed that was the case although I was surprised that they were even big enough to get any slot at festivals like that.

I would hypothesise that the reaction to Cope didn't help with the popularity of the new album, both here and across the pond. A shame - it's a wonderful record.

 

Nah Reading and Leeds are great for championing smaller acts across the festival. There are bands on the bills over the years with far less of a following than these lads.

Yeah you may be right there.

 

Reading and Leeds has gone to absolute shit in the last 4 years. Would never go there again now.

I purchased the LP last week so I contributed to that UK charting haha

 

a 7 for Manchester by pitchfork at this point is really like a 9 ha.

 

Ian Cohen's reviews are so... Interesting in that I can always see where he is coming from, but he takes it to a cynical level unimaginable anywhere besides Pitchfork where you have to be the Beatles to get a 10 (or one of the artists they adore)

 

Yea I like a lot of Ian's reviews, I just usually disagree with the scores. Ian also loves the hotelier a ton so that makes me put up with the things I disagree with.

 

I also always feel like half the review is on Andy Hull as a person and partially the album lol

 

Yeah, just read it. It sounds like he has a grudge against Andy or the way Andy chooses to live his life.

When he actually talks about the album, I agreed with quite a bit of what was written. But there's a lot in there that wasn't necessary.