they did put out Hiding, which was a nice transitional single between the albums, helped the transition from being crazy jarring.
Perhaps a forgotten band nowadays, but this made me recall Oceana, now known as Polyenso. The jump from Birth.Eater to Clean Head was quite jarring, and there was barely one year (and a short lived break up inbetween) between both releases. I guess As Cities Burn counts as well?
Hiding helped like someone else said. There was a pretty big split in the fanbase but I think most people who liked the previous stuff really like the past couple albums too
It was a bit of an adjustment but considering how damn good Keep You is, it didn't take long at all to get on board with the new direction. And as mentioned, Hiding definitely helped. All this talk of Pianos means I'm running through their discog today I guess!
I can kinda agree tbh—obviously the vocals are the big noticeable shift but music on both keep you and TLLA is super similar post-rock inspired stuff and WFL is wayyyyy poppier a lot of the time
they also kinda talked about it on the rigs of dad pod but those two felt like kyle fitting his vocals around largely finished songs whereas wait for love had more traditional song structures and felt more collaborative
Oh damn I remember Oceana. Still love As Cities Burn, have a tattoo of their first album art. Another is Dead Poetic - I think they dropped all screamed vocals from the first to second album.
I remember it not being shocking, fans were definitely aware what was happening, I'm guessing they said it in interviews. The first released single was Repine, so any doubts went out the window immediately.
Repine coming off the back of Hiding was helpful too. I was intrigued after Hiding, which I still think is top tier pbtt, and repine got me excited for it as someone who was into the first 2 albums at the time. They nailed the transition
I think they gave a nice heads up in interviews and with singles. Also, it didn't hurt that I was a fan of that style of music too. So shifting from one style I loved to another style I loved wasn't too hard for me.
I really hope these are tied to lyrics or something. I do not have it in me to watch another band i love implode. I really don’t think it’s that though