I like Young, Dumb, and Stung I’ve always felt alone in that tho don’t care what you think, you think I care
Only song I don't like on S/T is Property. I remember when S/T came out, you couldn't find it around where I live, and my mom was on a trip so I got her to pick it up for me. I remember ripping it open excitedly and listening to it for the first time quite vividly haha
I spent $100 on a huge box set preorder of Self-Titled haha. Probably the first vinyl record I ever owned.
"Eloise" and "Cemetery" are probably my favorite Say Anything songs. S/T has some really special songs
Hate Everyone, Do Better, Cemetary, Ahh... Men, Eloise, and Mara and Me are all exceptional songs and some of my favorites. I also have a soft spot for Death For My Birthday and She Won't Follow You. Young, Dumb, and Stung has always just kind of been there for me, but it's alright. Fed To Death is great as an opener, but I'm always confused when people praise it as one of the band's best. I think it was just too short for me to give that much thought to it. As for Property, it's never bothered me. Even when I first heard it in high school I understood it to be intentionally ridiculous. But I also understand people who have a bigger issue with it and the song isn't really worth defending for me and I could see an argument that he was kind of making a joke out of a serious and potentially deadly topic. I'm surprised more people aren't talking about how good Ahh... Men is. Such a great closer. Ok I think that covers everything.
It sucks that the tour last winter was cancelled. I was 3 days away from seeing the ST performed live.
seeing Ahh... Men on Max's first solo tour was transcendent. those were some special shows. s/t in general is in-fact great, and in what i choose to believe is not a coincidence, it's also the only record i don't recall Max likening to IARB in the lead up.
Something that's been confusing me lately - and maybe partly because I didn't fully get into this band until after S/T was released - is why Max felt he had so much to prove on AMD. Was the reception to S/T that bad? Because now it seems like fans have taken to it, but I remember the build up to AMD being like Max basically saying like "no I swear you'll like this one". And then Lost My Touch basically sounds like people had consistently been hating his albums since IARB, but I feel like AMD is the only one before Hebrews that was not really loved.
Anytime I try to cut IDOTG into one disc, I struggle to cut more than 10 tracks. I know that seems substantial, but it comes down to that being the first Say Anything album I heard and it fundamentally changing the way I think about songwriting. I'd never heard anything quite like this band before and the way they blended emo, pop-punk, and math-rock on top of how theatrical and genuinely funny Max's lyrics were changed everything for me. Everything within the scene I'd been exposed to before that took itself so seriously. I love the hell out of that record in all its excessive glory. Some of my favorite albums and films are unweildy in that sense, and In Defense of the Genre is no exception.
good question and I think you’re right about that. unfortunately I don’t have a good answer for you except to say I feel like Max has always felt like his back was against the wall, that people wouldn’t like his newer material as much as IARB and that’s a shame really because (most) all of the records have something great to offer the listener
i actually made a single disc edit of in defense of the genre last night. it slapped from front to back but also made me realize the sprawl is kind of the point of the record. i’d maybe feel strongly about cutting 2-3 songs and retitling “r***** in love” which is just needlessly ruined by that word
"This is Fucking Ecstacy" is the first song I heard by this band, and the song that convinced to buy the album in the first place. "An Insult to the Dead," "The Truth is You Should Lie With Me," I mean come on
I know Skinny Mean Man is about John Nolan and I’ve heard rumors that Vexed is about Jesse Lacey makes sense to me given the lyrics but obviously I have no clue either way