Bne is so good. A lot of their albums just really grew on me over the years. Just so relatable. I jam to crazy girls when I'm out driving with my SO. She finds it amusing that two of the writers I relate to the most are Hayley and Nate.
AWIF gets a lot of flack for being a product of its time, and it hasn't aged the most gracefully, but it'll always have its own little nook in my heart. Same with RIOT.
truly curious what the band does on AWKIF better than any other release, other than nostalgia or a major major sound preference to that over the others I don't really know how they haven't improved over time, hah. I'm not doubting your love for it I'm just curious the reasoning, haha
As I said a few pages ago, there's nothing wrong with how AWKIF has aged. It's aged a lot better than pretty much any other contemporary album and is something that I rarely if ever hear people say makes them cringe when they listen to it now (check the Fall Out Boy thread for discussion on how most people fell about TTTYG these days, for example, in contrast). It's not their technically best album, obviously, but then, "best" and "favorite" aren't necessarily the same thing.
The fact that this album's already coming out this Friday is just...just great. This is the kind of pre-release cycle I can get behind: some cryptic social media posts, an announcement and single, another song two weeks later, album drops two weeks after that. No 3-6 month wait between announcement and release.
I love the little things, the way she starts out in denial, and by the end she just straight up admits it. And the way she casually says all these crazy things, which a lot of people do similarly when they're intoxicated by being in a relationship for so long. I know I've been in both ends of that relationship, and it's just so amusing to think about. I don't think I can pick a favorite, probably Last Hope.
Hi my name is Jimmy and The Only Exception made me cry in the car this morning because I am a giant sap
I don't understand people who think it's their best release, but I definitely understand holding it in high regard still. I think the reason AWKIF is better than its contemporaries is because they were 16 year old kids doing a style of music better than men in their mid-20s at that time. As opposed to it being the height of what they could accomplish, it was just the beginning of a long, incredible career. Not to mention that the lyrics to a lot of those songs still ring true. Many of the other albums from that era have developed into something I feel complicated to have liked, because of misogynistic lyrics or the band members themselves.