This is gonna be a grower for me I’m sure. I was disappointed in brave faces when it first dropped. Don’t find this as one note or downtempo as the responses here had me expecting tbh
I think I've narrowed down the issue to Mutable and Exit Bags. Mutable I can't remember who said the tempo lets it down but yeah. Exit Bags, lyrically there's a lot going on but it's just not a very exciting song and I think having those two close together near the end of the record doesn't set it up for Re-Emerging Signs quite as well as, say, Dolores into BFE. The rest of the album is so very good though.
This is my issue with this band. I really like how they sound, and I actually love how they sound on this album, but I get tired after a while of listening to the lead singer yelling at me about how life sucks.
To each their own, I find it grating and samey after a while. I just had to respond to the goat comment because it is hilarious (I've been a huge Conor Oberst fan throughout my life and have heard similar complaints lol so I get it).
Probably should just go to the "bad opinions" thread, but my only gripe with this album and band is that the singer does the strained/warbly voice a bit too consistently for my liking. In general, I really like when singers use their voice that way, but I feel like it pulls more punches when it's not very often, so those moments feel so big and emotional. On this album, and the last, I feel like he's in that mode so often that it loses it's power. Hard to explain in text I guess, but that's the thing kinda holding me back here from loving it. The songs are great, musically and some really cool song structures, etc... but vocally I get a bit burnt out by the style
Sometimes. Even so, listening to some dude yell at me about it for 40 minutes doesn't make it any better lol
I’ve always really liked Dylan’s lyrics but I think this album has some really impressive storytelling
Don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but when I was in a really, really bad place after Schmaltz came out, I sent a message to the band on Facebook just telling them how shitty things were for me and how much Schmaltz and Giant Sings the Blues were a coping mechanism for my mental state. I was never suicidal or anything to that extent, but I was very much in a "don't care if I live" kind of place and the message I sent was significantly more personal than virtually anything even a remotely more stable version of me would write. If I went and read it now, I'd cringe. With that being said, Dylan took the time to respond to me very, very kindly and I'll never forget how much more personal that made that record for me, and how attached it still makes me to this band now.