I've loved heard his voice progress tbh. I do prefer the earlier style though prooooobably Nightingale
it just keeps going higher and higher and cleaner and cleaner and it just seems like that's the only range he'll sing at anymore, but i like how it's more balanced sounding in live settings/videos. I wish he did what he did half the time, it just hardly sounds like him to my ears. but i also haven't listened to the later stuff as much, it's still possible it'll grow on me
i like the diversity it adds to the album. a more mid-tempo track, and it works perfectly as the follow up to As Your Ghost Takes Flight. the bridge where Conley has the distorted vocal effect and the thumping bass gives me chills to this day. yeah i get that, its definitely become more nasally and higher. but i like it, i guess ive just grown with the band to an extent so it doesnt bother me as much.
GOD the bass lines across that whole album are so fucking good. Totally agree w you on all of that though, it used to be my least favorite on the album but now I love it.
yeah for a power pop album and a genre that typically puts focus on the guitars and power chords, the bass and drums and more intricate guitar work have made it stand out above its peers. I dont think its a stretch to say Stay What You Are did for pop rock what Worship & Tribute did for post-hardcore. Its an album I can easily throw on and listen to all the way through and then want to listen to it all over again.
that's fair, i definitely just kind of jammed tbc-ir for like 2 years and then just listened to the rest in the span of like a week so there wasn't a ton of growing involved also nightingale is a perfect track, good choice btw, on my first few listens it always surprised me it wasn't the closer
yeah i feel you. i can imagine its a shocking change when digesting a good chunk of the catalog in a short time haha. yeah honestly Nightingale or This Is Not An Exit couldve been a good closer but I love where Firefly is in the tracklist i cant imagine it being anywhere else. Honestly that albums sequencing is pretty flawless. frankly that album is pretty flawless.
oh, you have no idea, i actually thought i had altered files the first time, it was a wild experience. that album is great, there's nothing i find wrong with it and i appreciate it more and more as time goes by, i just weirdly find the next one connected with me more deeply (and Sound the Alarm, but that was a time/place thing)
while im thinking about it, Chris Conley's cover of El Scorcho in that Punks in Vegas session is a really great cover
Idk what he's going for with the progresion of his voice with each album, but I kinda love it. I do think he sings too often in the same pitch, but for the most part, I think he always deliver. I actually think he gives a really diverse performance on the new Two Tongues in a way I'd never expected from him. When I saw them live a few years back, my girlfriend (who only listens to Through Being Cool) was taken back by how much it's changed since. I didn't even consider the difference, but I think he owns it on stage. (Unfortunately, he stopped the show to yell at us to shut up while we discussed this.)
Fun fact: Firefly initially had a chorus and that chorus was the "to me you are the light...." part but the producer said nah and that it would be the closing part of the song.
yeah watching recent live stuff it's a lot cooler imo in that setting. so it might be the way his voice is recorded, not sure. does he often tell people to shut up during shows haha i've heard it the most about him
I only know of one instance of it, from a few months back. I was just riffing on that; it didn't actually happen at my show.
I really don't think it's that different. I mean yeah it's a bit higher and cleaner but it's still the same guy singing to me and it sounds great. Lyrically he's been consistently great Ok here's my first official STD ranking SWYA IR STA UTB STD Daybreak TBC CSD
Bummed I can't see Two Tongues anymore, but I wonder if there will be another Where's the Band tour this winter with a more level headed Full Conley. If I can't get my yearly Saves the Day live fix in, I'll be a sad man. That said, if they announce that they're in the studio, I'll be ecstatic. Love the current line-up. Arun and Rod kill it.
Chris is such a fantastic writer. Up there with the best from this scene like Geoff Rickly or Keith Buckley. Some of the lyrics are so brutally gruesome and other times they're so romantically sweet. I've basically gone through the whole catalog twice now, not really a bad song in the bunch. Ups & Downs makes a strong case for being my favorite song, at least top 3 along with Nightingale and Driving In The Dark. The self titled is also perfect taut succinct pop rock and I wish it got more love. I hope they drop something next year.
I honestly think the change in his voice is really subtle and not something I get people disliking til Under the Boards. Like, In Reverie and Sound the Alarm are not dramatically different from SWYA to me. On Under the Boards though, it's questionable, sure, but not awful...Daybreak took a huge leap imo. But I also listened to these in extremely close proximity to each other so the transition wasn't gradual. Was that a thing you also did or did you listen in (somewhat/relative) real time?