The first time I heard “Money” I like “okay, off to a good start with a fun bass line. Nice work Shaun” then it quickly turned into “wait, what the hell are these lyrics? What the hell are these vocals in the chorus?” I would’ve liked S/T so much more had those demos been included.
this doesn’t surprise me. I’ve noticed it’s something that is more pronounced at larger shows/opening sets/festival crowds, like he’s trying to fill the space with this persona (and having seen a few shows in smaller venues, he’s basically admitted that it’s something he does to combat the nerves).
Would love to hear the version of “You Should Have Waited” that still included the long intro that plays in this video.
Both that song and Best Places To Be A Mom sounded better in those videos and in the initial reunion shows, then got overworked in the studio latter on. A shame that demo never got released. Demoitis strikes again!
So I’m gonna eat my earlier words. This is good. I’ve been listening to it a lot. More so than Gaslight and Menzingers.
I like both the demo and studio versions of Best Places, but the studio version would’ve been way better without Eric Valentine’s production
Did Eric mix the record as well? I wonder if that’s more of the problem. Bc louder now sounds good and he did that one as well.
Yeah I like the final version too. Just thought it sounded better when it immediately started with the whole band, and that particular lead guitar (which they buried latter on), instead of Adam and the guitars. The chorus on the studio version is much catchier though.
When they played it in Philly during those first reunion shows and the song opened with that lead guitar bit, I remember thinking “aw yeah, we are so fucking back”.
There are so many random lines of lyrics from this that just pop in my head literally hundreds of times a day. Very fun album.
I Love self titled, love happiness is, love tidal wave, I’m the one who doesn’t get this one. There’s a joke I guess
This album has really reinvigorated my love for these guys. I enjoyed the last 3 to some degree but I love this from front to back. I think Amphetamine Smiles has been stuck in my head since the day it dropped lol
looks like they announced some late march UK dates today so, maybe a springtime/summer world tour for the album? unless they hit the road right after the new year and do feb/march in the US but feel like tickets would already be on sale were that the plan.
Feel like they missed out on a huge opportunity to announce the tour while all the positive press/fan reaction was at its peak.
Finally came back to this after it find of fell out of my rotation due to coming out the same day as Gaslight. This is such a great evolution of their sound. The three album stretch of HI-TW-152 is incredible for a band this far into their career. Helped me fall in love with this band again after not digging NA and Self Titled for the most part. I’m excited for a tour next year.
Since leaving Warner Bros they definitely have sounded more liberated across those 3 albums. There’s nothing contrived, they just sound like records the band actually wanted to make. NA was the band having to bounce back rather quickly after Louder Now’s success and losing Fred, and S/T was the band learning how to play/write together again after 7 years with the added pressure of major label and fan expectations. NA probably would’ve been more of a hit if Fazzi had more time to develop a relationship with the rest of the band and they worked with a different producer. (not trying to go down the NA rabbit hole, just how I view that era in hindsight)