I listened to Happiness Is on my drive home from work today. I think it's my #2 TBS album at this point. We Were Younger Then is in my top 5, Better Homes is another top 5. It Takes More is also a super underrated song in their catalog.
I like that with Happiness Is they took their time with crafting those songs and it paid off, showing that they've clearly still got it. Same with Tidal Wave. S/T sounded too rushed in addition to Eric Valentine's shitty production.
"All The Way" was where "Happiness Is" clicked with me on first listen. I knew/loved "Flicker Fade", I thought "Stood a Chance" was alright, but I was sold on it when the bass and drums come in on "All The Way". That album's middle section doesn't drag like S/T's did.
Listening to Tidal Wave on spotify and "We Don't Go In There" hit me hard. And the truth is I hate it How am I the only one who sees? We're scraping the surface Only 'cause there's not much underneath Still, everyone was hanging on to every single word Nonchalant, you shrugged it off Thinking you had all us fooled, all us fooled, all us fooled And yes, I think some of the stuff that Adam (and maybe even with John) has been writing for a good fucking while is related to this. "El Paso" and "We Don't Go In There" do make more sense now than they've ever done before.
I always immediately thought This Is All was written about Jesse but then they came out and said it was about an old preacher of John’s, so I assumed some of those songs were about the same theme.
I can see it, but it's something about the lyrics, the way that Adam sings it live and some of the lyrics he changes ("nobody knows, nobody cares, about the how, why or WHEN"). Both use the devil and god imagery that in retrospect makes both songs have more layers underneath. Crazy how now it applies to both though.
I think that if this was something that people knew, while This Is All Now definitely works in the context of a deceiving preacher, a deceiving preacher can be many things figuratively, from a president to a popular singer. So I'm glad that these songs take a life of their own and can be applied to several situations.
most of the stuff they write about now is either politics related or religion based. i'm gonna go ahead and say they haven't wrote a song about jesse lacey in 10+ years and dont' care to.
That's easily the most reasonable assessment. I'm just speculating the fuck away and probably very wrong.
I wouldn't be opposed to a TBS tour where they only play Happiness Is (including the bonus songs) and Tidal Wave back to back. Very excited for new stuff to be written too. I hope they take the HI and TW direction further.
I can get behind that idea. If they did, it'd be awesome if they alternated b/w those 2 albums in sequential order (i.e. playing "Preface" then "Death Wolf" then "Flicker Fade then "Tidal Wave", and so on)
For anyone interested, the next cover compilation from the music forum is going to be none other than TBS.