Listened to both S&W albums and the Skateboard Dinosaur LP on a long drive yesterday and yeah, both S&W albums are still all timers for me, and Skateboard Dinosaur makes me happier than just about any other music that’s come out the past few years. If we get new music from S&W, I will actually cry at this point probably.
This album does a really good job of throwing me back 15+ years into the exact moment of when I discovered it. It holds up so well and better than a lot of those albums from that era. The overall sequencing, varying song types, use of unique elements within songs is all just impeccable. Sounds cliche, but they were almost ahead of their time at that point with this. Really hoping the Instagram tease wasn't just for the FF announcement and that we actual get a vinyl repress or small slew of shows.
It makes me happy to see this thread getting bumped on a regular basis. Like others have said they definitely stood out compared to other bands in the genre. I loved Great White Whale but thought these guys really hit their stride with Teenage Fantasy. It felt like they were in the verge of something special with that album and I still go back to it pretty regularly. I never got a chance to see them live so I would love if it the announcement involved a tour!
is the second album worth checking out? i never got the CD back in the day so i never heard it. i saw it was a big drop off of listeners on lastfm between the two albums though i saw they were only two years apart, why did the numbers go down for the sophomore album, anyone know?
1,000% worth it. I agree with @THW that it is the better album of the two. The album is otherworldly. They were criminally under-pushed by Tooth & Nail, especially the follow-up. I'm sure they could have been so much bigger with the right promotion. The quality was there.
Teenage Fantasy is my favorite album in the entire genre. GWW is still easily in my top 15, but TF is the reason I like heavy music today.
Teenage Fantasy absolutely holds up and should be a pillar of the genre, in a just world. I like GWW but TF is something else. The guitar tones on Youth Cats and Warrior (Southern Arrowwood) alone are just astounding. The playing and singing is otherworldly.
i am team great white whale all the way, so many all timers on that album, but they never made a bad song
Star Blankets and Whale Bones are two of my favorite tracks from these guys. I think GWW has more bangers but TF has better written songs all around IMO.
I'd feel guilty pinning both albums against each other which just shows how great both are. Maybe it's better they only had these two releases and then trapped that output in a bottle.
About once a year, I get obsessed with Great White Whale for a week or so. Love that album. For whatever reason, Teenage Fantasy never clicked for me, but I'm going back to it today for the first time in several years, so we'll see if things have changed. I've also been watching old grainy live footage of them on YouTube this morning. It's so insane that Charles could carry a whole set like that and actually sound pretty dang good.