Lonely, Lonely rules, always thought it sounded like The Union pt.2 in a good way. A more rock’n’roll take on their upbeat and aggressive tendencies
I don’t know if it was because it was “too well” but it was definitely the producer who pushed Matt’s vocals off and that was obviously a huge mistake.
What a pleasant surprise to see all the New Again love in this thread! Definitely hasn’t been that way in the past lol It’s still in my personal top 3 for this band.
Wasn’t Matt Squire the producer? Guess I can not only be mad at him for some of his input on Underoath’s Erase Me but for New Again as well lol
Adam’s vocals are at their worst on NA and the S/T. I think he was doing a lot of experimenting with his range and style on those to figure out what he was capable of with a changing voice and unfortunately the results are pretty mixed. Couple that with a lack of duel vocals and the results definitely contribute to those two being their weakest.
Listening now. A lot of great ideas but I feel like this was an album where Adam was constantly so worried about being called emo that they left a lot of the mainstays of TBS out
Yeah the lack of dual vocals is just dumb IMO, whether it's a "gimmick" or not, it's what made TBS, TBS for me. Limiting so much since Louder Now continues to be a mistake to me, and it's not shocking that a lot of my favorite songs post-LN are the ones that dipped back into that at least once in the song. On NA, Swing, title track, and Carpathia, for example. On S/T the clear best song on that album is This Is All Now and the dual vocals are a big part of it, same with Best Places, love John's little part in the 2nd verse of Faith rules, etc.
I just don’t see why everyone loves Swing. Like I do like the song but even as a person who NA is my favorite album, it’s one of my least favorite songs on the record
Nah, Dave Khane was the producer. He had previously worked with Paul McCartney, and I think it was Warner Bros. who basically said they had to work with him, which is crazy to me because leading up to Louder Now, they had met people like Rob Cavallo, Howard Benson and Gil Norton before they settled on Eric Valentine. Any one of those 3 would’ve been a way better choice, although Rob Cavallo was probably too busy with doing Paramore’s Brand New Eyes at the time. Or they could’ve gone back to Lou Giodano who did WYWTB. I just feel like those guys would’ve had a better understanding of the band and how to get the best out of them.
Personally, I think Tidal Wave is the nadir of Adam’s vocal performances. “Fences” is damn near unlistenable. Also, New Again has the best sounding drums in their entire catalog pretty easily, even if the rest isn’t quite there.
Yeah i think it had something to do with Fazzi’s vocals not being aggressive enough/the fact that Fazzi isn’t really a screamer like Fred could be.
For me it's "Holy Water" off that album. If his voice wasn't so screechy I'd definitely enjoy the track a lot more. No, the acoustic version isn't any better. The way he says "puuUUUurly gates~" on "Tidal Wave" ways gets a chuckle out of me though.
it occurs to me how funny it is that this thread has already moved on from a major member leaving back to "is New Again good?" also New Again is great, way better than S/T for sure
Wiki says they were planning on going with Eric Valentine but their schedules didn’t align. That explains why they went back to him on S/T then
i still enjoy the album. but i do remember some sort of DVD or something with Fazzi and they talked about trying things in weird time signatures, three part harmonies over dual vocals, etc. they may have gotten in their own heads a bit with some of that stuff.
i think Tidal Wave is probably the most comfortable range he can sing it. when you hear those songs live, they are actually very similar.
Also I know a friend of TBS's that has done screaming vocals with them, Neil Rubenstein, and asked who to contact about seeing if they need a new drummer, even if Mitch Register was playing with them so he gave me the name of their manager and I messaged her about auditioning. I doubt anything will come of it, but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take lol
For along time I didn't know Rubenstein was doing the screams on Timberwolves, as I wasn't a fan of hte band from the beginning, and I had always wondered how/why John Nolan only broke that scream out for the one song lol
Neil's screams in those two first albums are so perfect. I wish they'd bring him back on for new stuff! He's a standup comic now for those who don't know and he's really funny!