Just started this and Routine Pain is pretty much everything I was hoping for in a follow up to Schmaltz already. I was worried this wouldn't be able to live up to how much I love that album but I am starting to believe it can!
Had impossibly high hopes for this and still wasn't let down. Album is everything I wanted it to be. Was getting literal chills with the last song. Gonna spend a lot of time diving more into this tomorrow. Each song feels like its own treasure waiting to fully explore.
This fucking album. The lyrics hits haaaard, as usual. After my second listen I think it's just as good as Schmaltz.
This is the complete opposite of how I feel - the whole album seems to me like one big song, which is why I don't think I can love this band. All sounds the same, the same feeling, the same complaints (often about not having money). They were great live when I saw them though and looking forward to seeing them with the Menzingers again
This is fucking brilliant. The lyrics on this are sky high. This band is going to join TWY/Menzingers/MoBo on that kind of celebrated level in this scene.
I liked this a lot on first listen but definitely had some of the same complaints about a lot of it sounding like the same song over and over. But after sitting with it for a week and really digging in with the lyrics I don’t feel that way at all. Just as good as Schmaltz if not better, and basically the perfect 2020 album.
Solid contender for AOTY on my year, but we've still got a long way to go. It's likely gonna be the best album of Q1 for me. Now if we could just get another North American headliner soon...
So much to talk about with this album. I will have to scroll back on through the last 10 pages or so but forgive me for now if I say things that have been said already. To me - this album is more about how fucked up the state of this country is as a whole than anything else. I apologize in advance for how political this post will be but this album has a clear and overwhelming political message about how crushingly rigged the economy is. The band seems to constantly go back to the struggle to pay bills, feelings of hopelessness, that nothing ever changes, dying poor, the inability to drink a cup of coffee without making another millionaire a billionaire, rising insurmountable debt and rising oceans. The depression interwoven throughout these themes to me is also telling as depression, anxiety, suicide and even gun violence are undeniable resulting symptoms of income inequality and a rigged economy that leaves people in a constant state of paycheck to paycheck anxiety stress and struggle. The lyrics pertaining to gun violence and how it's become normalized in this country were really powerful with references to clear backpacks, fire exits and turning on the news to find what he already knew that it was just another white guy with a grudge. This album is a tough listen because while it's melodramatic it's also vividly real. It's a story that a large percentage of this country can relate to. This one's going to stick with me...I'm shook.
“We throw a pill down our throats, Or ourselves into the ocean. Cause half our friends are dead, the other half are depressed.”
I'm sort of jealous of everyone having their first listen today. I got my vinyl pre-order on Monday and haven't been able to stop since.
There is little doubt for me that this album is going to massively connect with fans of this type of music. The lyrics are painfully relatable for 90% of the population. I agree that this is going to propel them to the ranks of The Menzingers and The Wonder Years- having classic albums that are beloved by the entire scene.