I also think this sort of sounds like a movie score in a good way. The first few songs are legit good, even as demos. The rest of the album started to sound a bit repetitive imo but I’m sure if they followed through it would have come out pretty good
Like Dogs a lot. I know this came long before it but it feels like something off Jimmy Urine's Cinematic Sounds album
Just found out about the leak. Where does one go about finding a download to something like that in 2026?
well, high hopes has the chorus “I have high hopes for my life” and dogs is the 2nd to last track that has the reprise of the witch / big orchestral ending. Kind of feels like the real ending and the closing track is kind of like “blood”.
Listened to this again and Witch through Operation Day are the most obvious in need of polish, but that whole back half is straight fire and War Beneath The Rain and High Hopes especially have my vote for best songs to levitate off the ground to.
After listening a bunch of times I feel like War lacks an oomph their big singles have, like it's just missing something idk. I like High Hopes but it may almost be TOO The Cure lol Only songs I dislike are Birthday Girl (would easily be my least favorite MCR song) and Wake Up (they did the straightforward rock song better elsewhere) about half the album I would say is interesting but I can get why it wasn't released
Like, I wonder if the pressure the band puts themselves under to make some big creative artistic statement cripples them from just being a really good band. They were going to shelve Conventional Weapons, they shelved this, I get wanting to put out something that makes you happy, but I can't help but wonder if there's something more there that makes putting out a normal album untenable.
I think that's absolutely part of it. Which is why I wouldn't be surprised if from here on out we just get an occasional single that's incredible/one of their best and they keep the rest to themselves. At least until the career spanning boxset is released in 20 years.
Well, that's the subjective nature of music for ya. To be fair, I like that string of songs, it's just very clearly more unpolished compared to the later stuff. Like even compared to Fake Your Death, Witch sounds oddly muted and I assume that's because it's a demo not meant for consumption.
Fair enough, didn't know if this was a whole "I love it because it sounds like it was recorded in a basement" sort of thing.
Those three songs sound no worse or better than the rest of the album production-wise it's pretty consistent Didn't know I was gonna get attacked lol
Listened again today and this has been seriously growing on me, wish it could have been released in a finished state. War Beneath the Rain through the end is particular is great. Also really like Operation Day and Bike Thief
Eh, I dunno, when I hear Fake Your Death, I think it sounds pretty alright for a recording, not that much different than someone on an indie label or self-producing, but then again I don't have an ear for that stuff, I guess. But then Witch cuts in and the orchestration doesn't sound as loud as I'd expect following Fake Your Death, and Bike Thief just sounds rough. And then somewhere on Falling Down, and especially on Birthday Girl onward, it sounds clearer. Clearly the whole album would come out better after production, but I think the earlier tracks sound like they'd benefit the most.