I really only think the good songs are the singles and Ew Jersey. The rest are fine. Better than IDTII though. Also, if you just ignore the "concept/story" of the album, it's loads better.
I'm midway through my first listen now. Really like "When I'm Acid," but nothing else besides Pink Snot has grabbed me yet.
It is largely acoustic and while it sounds a lot cleaner than IDTII, it really never kicked into high gear. By time I got to the end, I feel like I had already forgotten the beginning. Kind of a sad sendoff (for now at least) for SA. :(
I still enjoy how this record sounds, and I also still struggle with it's narrative and how that relates to Max's and my own identity, some of the things he's said on Twitter, my own history with him and what was my first favorite band, etc. So...I plan unpacking that in a more longform medium, which may or may not answer some of those questions for myself.
although this album isn't exactly what i was hoping for, especially as a goodbye album, i definitely enjoy it, and have grown to like it more than i originally expected. favorites; it's a process/ew jersey/send you off
I'd consider myself a pretty big fan of Is A Real Boy, In Defense of the Genre, Say Anything, and Hebrews. I don't dislike Anarchy. But there's just almost nothing here for me. It's not completely void of intrigue, which is more than I can say for I Don't Think It Is, I guess.
I think the only songs I don't love at this point are Greased and Fired which are so short that I don't really care.
Finished my listen. I think the only songs I'll be coming back to are Pink Snot, When I'm Acid, Send You Off and Sediment.
Sonically, this feels like a pretty natural successor to Self-Titled, a bit like a mix of the best parts of that record and Anarchy, My Dear
Generally this project came off ill-thought out and sloppy to me on first listen. That said, I'll probably give it a few more tries and I enjoyed the closer. His portrayal of the afterlife feels like an actual breakthrough compared to the rest of the album's story. I wake up with a humming glow of a hundred Percocets. I have the arms of a baby, veins of an old lady, My vision is runny and profound. There's a still light we sit behind. You turn to me and ask if I'd like you to stay But I didn't have anything here. I say "I should have dissolved in you, but I made us statistics They can write us off, but I don't fucking deserve you" You look confused, but after a very awkward pause You kiss my cheek and then walk off. Left alone now, I start to age backwards And I'm viciously hungering for someone To love me the way my parents never did. There must be someone who can, somewhere. Maybe I'll take a walk and see, after all it's so big It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on...
I’ll admit, I listened to the leak months ago. Only a few times though. I wanted to listen with the lyrics, so I kind of stopped and decided to wait for the official release. And damn, I like these songs even more now. I really really enjoy this album.
I like the band fuel, mouthbreather, pink snot, sediment, send you off, the hardest, your father and it’s a process. I could do without some of the others.
It’s a shame about the lyrical content, because musically and vocally The Hardest is a beautiful thing
imagine having your young children on a song where "I'll slit your throat and leave you gaping" is a lyric in reference to a gay lover. surely not planting any bad seeds with that one
If you read his pre-release manifesto (which I did again yesterday while listening), the whole album is written from the perspective of trying to find empathy for someone who is the “opposite” of him. Personally, I think it led to his most charicatured lyrics ever. It’s like “Died A Jew” meets sexuality.
The lyrics to me are understandable based on the context of the album and the character the album is written about. I get though they could be off-putting. Also he's only really hung up say anything for now and not music as a whole, we have Perma and the Solo release coming out this year. Perma first based on Twitter
I still just don't understand, at ALL, the desire to inject more ignorance/cruelty/pigheaded masculinity into this cultural moment by "writing a character" who is all of those things and then making a whole album about that "character," much less Max lending his own fucking voice to that character's shitty ideas.