Haven't talked about this band in forever, so what the heck. There might be more top tier songs on TAYF than any other album of theirs, but I've soured on the sound of the album enough in recent years that I literally can't remember the last time I listened to it. Even though it has a lot of adolescent lyrics that wouldn't sound the same from adults, I'd still love to hear good studio re-recordings of at least some of that album. WYWTB has become my favorite album of theirs. It's just the perfect sound from them. "Decade," "Slowdance," & "One-Eighty" is the band at their absolute best, imo. I don't care about LN basically at all anymore. "Make Damn Sure" is one of my favorite songs of theirs, & "Brooklyn," while not as exciting to me as it is to most fans, is good, but while I don't hate the rest, I'd also be content never hearing any of it for the rest of my life. I get why people don't like NA, but to me, it's a better version of LN. Not great, a lot of forgettable songs, but it's got some strong highlights, & if I wanted to throw on one of their albums as background noise, it'd probably be my second choice? TBS is a few great songs ("Call Me in the Morning," "Best Places," & "This is All Now,"), & then otherwise the worst full album of theirs I own? I do actually like "Faith" a bit, too, but otherwise, meh. The b-sides I've heard people overstate the quality of are bad, too; the only appeal is the novelty of hearing the band sounding "raw" again. Never listened to what came after.
i think, for me at least, it's a little of both. I mean, maybe the lyrics aren't exactly mature, but they're clever and cute. I mean, the way Adam almost raps the lyrics was something that kindof appealed to me, which was different than WYWTB. But yeah, definitely a lot of nostalgia, like the video for Cute Without the E and the tribute to Fight Club. Man that was awesome! ...And it's funny, I never heard this album until only a few years ago (2015 i guess), but I'd always known about the album and it really did take me back to those days...especially the Cute video, but also the Timberwolves video. That clothing, omg! Totally miss those days! ha! :D edit: ha! and the phones with cords!! omg! :P yes! and this lyric! "The truth is you could slit my throat, and with my one last gasping breath I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt."
just reading the comments to this video thinking of days gone by. sigh!!! :P Seriously though, why was Flava Flav in this? Does he even do anything in the song?? (so confused). No offense or anything, just this guy never came up on my radar, so I'm like, "who dat?"
They've explained this story a lot, but I think the main thing was they wanted a distraction because Fred and Matt had just joined the band so they didn't want them featured/focused much in the video for a song they obviously didn't create so they got Flava Flav - which they thought would be a funny idea. Mark said he used to see him hanging out all the time around where he lived. Flava Flav had no idea who they were.
lol ok. i just don't get it...i mean, i get it, but I don't know who he is, so I don't think it's funny myself...i mean, the comments about his picnic blanket outfit are funny!! but it's more of a joke on him rather than with him...not trying to be mean, just not my "flavor"?? :P ok, i feel really bad saying this, but at the same time, it's just that I don't care for the aesthetic. I'm not really into rap kinda stuff. ok? so don't start up a thing about race or anything, cuz it's not that...just to be clear.
I blame this website for making me listen to New Again so many times. This ALWAYS happens, people come in and talk about how it's actually a great album and we are alll wrong, so I think... ok fine, I'll give it another shot... IMMEDIATE REGRET, the album is boring as fuck
New Again, Swing, and Everything Must Go are great songs. New Again > Self-Titled.... but I’ll listen to any TBS all day
People do too much about New Again on both sides. It's decent but kind of inconsistent, has a couple songs I would cut (Where My Mouth Is, Capital M-E) and a few that are in their top tier (Everything Must Go, Catholic Knees, Cut Me Up Jenny, yep you read the latter right). The lack of Matt's vocals overall hurts it a lot. The tracklist always bothered me too. New Again just isn't a convincing opener and, while it's a solid song, in that place I just want to skip it. Didn't See That Coming and Long Time Comin' should have replaced the weaker cuts. The former has quickly become one of my favorite songs out of their entire discography, and I'm so happy they highlighted it on Live From Orensanz.
Cut Me Up Jenny over Where My Mouth Is? Woaah. I agree it's pretty inconsistent and I wish Matt had more vocals because he has the voice of an angel lol Yeah, those b-sides were great, surprised none of them made the cut. But I felt the same way about Follow The Format, Mackey Sasser and Brooklyn.
I never got the hate for Cut Me Up Jenny, but I'm also such a sucker for the particular groove displayed. Very funky / R&B influenced, Matt's signature style is all over it with those jazzy guitar chords. In a way, I love it as a precursor to his Happy Body Slow Brain / Rare Futures work. I do understand the qualms about Adam's performance, even if I don't mind the strained high notes.
Where My Mouth Is sounds so much better live. Like... the guitar leads should soar but they feel buried instead. They made it sound way too flat in its studio form.
I hate to keep pushing the New Again talk, but just wanted to say I love that album. More than most of their stuff. It's got some lows (Capital ME) but some of the highs are some of the greatest songs in their catalog IMO (Everything Must Go, Carpathia). I've also had Lonely Lonely and Swing on my gym playlist for 10 years, they pump me up so much. And the b-sides for this album are all great too. Not enough talk for Winters Passing! I think this album is better than any album they've released since, and I'm always baffled when people rank it so low. But I guess that's the beauty of subjectivity!