Somos - Prison On A Hill (Oct 11, 2019) Album • Page 9

Oh wow, that’s a game changer

 

Yeah I'm very confused, the last two tracks definitely deserve to be on there, and it's not like they won't fit the full album on two sides of vinyl.

 

My Way works as a closer imo but New Blood and Dreamless are two parts of my favorite stretch of the record! It’d be a real shame to not have those included at all

 

Def the 1975 in ethos, and a lot of the synthwork embraces stylistic aspects of the band

 

new bio:

If Somos was a pop punk band when it formed in 2012, then the Boston-based trio is now a full-blown guitar pop band by comparison. For singer and bassist Michael Fiorentino, guitarist Phil Haggerty, and guitarist Justin Hahn, that evolution came naturally. On their third album, Prison On A Hill, Somos sound like the mellifluous intersection of The 1975 and Alkaline Trio. Gleaming synths and ‘80s-style percussion steer songs like “Absent and Lost” and “Young Believers.” Yet despite that, the album still carries the energetic spirit of their breakout debut full-length, 2014’s Temple of Plenty. Just listen to the blissfully anthemic “Untraceable Past.” Fundamentally, Somos are writing pop songs; they just happen to be intertwining guitar-driven rock as they do so.

The fact Prison On A Hill exists at all may come as a surprise. In 2016, Somos announced they were going on a hiatus, the result of exhaustion from constant tours. They quietly invested more time in other jobs and local activism efforts. Meanwhile, Fiorentino and Haggerty began writing music for an undefined side-project — that is, until it became clear those songs were meant to be Somos songs. “It’s funny,” says Fiorentino. “We didn’t think the hiatus would be this short. But once we gave ourselves the space to write music free from a project, we started writing Somos songs again.” Their efforts spawned two standalone singles in 2017, “Strangers On The Train” and “Permanently Lost.”

Free from expectations or outside pressures, Somos found themselves doing what they were always drawn to: writing songs, ignoring genre expectations, and, above all else, having fun as friends. You can hear all of this in Prison On A Hill. Recorded with Jay Maas (Defeater, Bane, Title Fight) in Boston this past winter, the tracks seem to come effortlessly, as if Somos fused the youthful energy of Temple of Plenty with the pop creativity of 2016’s First Day Back. It should come as no surprise that Somos were influenced by The 1975, Churches, The Japanese House, and the Rock Against Racism movement. Beneath the lush musical scope Somos created are lyrics hoping for political reform. In “Mediterranean,” the band tackles the rise of the far-right movement in Europe. In “Iron Heel,” they examine authoritarian rule a post-fascism world, Mad Max-style. Even the album’s title—a riff on the phrase “city on a hill,” an idealized term used to describe Massachusetts Bay Colony and later adapted by Ronald Reagan as a warped American Dream for the U.S. at large—has political roots. As Somos return to Tiny Engines with Prison on a Hill, the trio has a similar eager-eyed look as it did during their breakthrough year. Somos are back to having fun again, though they’re plenty serious about what they’re singing about, too.

 

I just can’t imagine New Blood not being on the official version, seriously

 

For all intents and purposes it IS on the official version though - I've heard of tracks exclusive to physical formats like vinyl or CD but never the vinyl version being the 'incomplete' record, as it were. Very strange.

 

Haven’t actually had the chance to listen through this whole thing yet but the new single is cool and I’m really really happy to see the positive reception for the new album

 

Shit... i might not get the vinyl, guys...

 

May as well wait for the repress with all 12 songs haha

 

Re: the RIYL, I can hear the alk3 now that it’s mentioned but I probably wouldn’t have thought it up myself. Don’t really agree with the other 2 either.

 

I mean, I’ll still be picking up the vinyl. Had this terrible thing not happened that triggered an early release, we wouldn’t even know that we wanted to them to be on the vinyl pressing anyway. It’s definitely a weird move on their part but the record still has a lot to offer in the other 10 songs

 

Got all 3 variants of the vinyl, adore this album.

 

My Way To You is my jam so far

 

fuck yeah

 

contender for my favorite song i’ve heard all year

 

I can’t think of another album this year that has hit me this hard, everything just gets better every listen. I went through a period of skipping Young Believers and now I’m realizing how great that is and how amazing this whole thing is

 

y'all were not fucking around about farewell to exile

 

Jesus Christ untraceable past. this sounds like a song they've been trying to write since top

 

@Leftandleaving you're in for a treat the remainder of the time

 

Ammunition is a banger

 

Wow my way to you is next level

 

intro to new blood sounds just like the 59 sound