Oh shut up, lol. We don’t have to do this dance every time someone posts their thoughts on a weirdly polarizing album.
You don't even have to visit this one. You can create your own thread, an isolated island where people can come see you sometimes.
Anyways. I listened to that podcast Adam was on, Drum whatever? And my main takeaway is that I really like Adam (which I already knew, but still).
Adam was in the studio while my band was recording our first EP in 2018. He was there shadowing the producer to watch and learn. At one point I was recording vocals while he was in the booth, you can imagine how crazy that felt. One of the coolest experiences of my life. I can confirm he is a very cool guy.
when i was in a band, we got a chance to be like the first 'local opener' for hawthorne heights, and anthony raneri from bayside was there and came early enough to watch us play (not that he was there to actually watch us) but it was incredibly surreal and also intimidating as fuck looking out and seeing him watching us play lol
I also didn’t know about that Fuckin Whatever project before listening to that. I’m listening to it now, and it’s mostly not my shit, but there is something kinda fun about it? Idk.
Finished self titled and Happiness Is this morning. There’s classic TBS singles on here, but it struck me this album goes from a scene emo band to a full on rock and roll band on this album. I hear Adam expressing his Tom Petty love on this one big time. Very interesting to me this was the first album back with John and Shaun. El Paso as the first new song with this lineup is wild. For context I was a massive fan through Louder Now and then around the time of this record they were on a few tours I saw for other bands. They were playing the classics a ton and it felt pretty tired at the time and I lost interest. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard this record through the newest one all the way through. Really enjoyed this listen. El Paso, Best Places, This Is All Now, You Got Me sound like classic TBS. Money & Doesn’t Feel Like a Thing, go full on radio rock and I dig it. Happiness Is kind of has that indie thing going on that New Again did but it sounds more like a cohesive TBS feel to me. Sounds like New Again is polarizing, but I dig it as a one off record. Aside from Homes & Gardens, nothing blowing me away on this one. Stood a Chance is very catchy. Best Places and Sink Into Me are better singles than Flicker Fade IMO. Still good, but my least favorite full length so far.
lol I had no idea how polarized New Again is. flicker fade is a better song objectively probably, but I dig the exploration they were doing finding themselves on New again a lot. Swing is rad. I was working out when I listened to New Again and was going off the rip in my response. I accept the public lashing.
Not putting self titled at the bottom is the most surprising to me, personally. Though, I do listen to an EP’s worth of that one more than I do a similar amount of songs from the follow-up, so idk. Granted, my 3 favorite albums of theirs satisfy me enough that I do tend to outright forget a lot of the songs on some of the others, lol.
This thread is wild right now. Ronald, keep posting the hot takes! Also, yessss. Finally, someone else who likes Money let's gooooo
WYWTB Louder Now TAYF New Again Self-Titled Happiness Is 152 Tidal Wave Ready to accept my fate. I don't think the s/t is as bad as people make it out to be.
I think a lot of the appeal for many people with Flicker, Fade is that it was the first single dropped after New Again and Self Titled more or less abandoned a lot of the dual vocals that really made them big, and it had a bit more of the back and forth there. I think it's crazy that it has now become likely the main song they play off Happiness Is... (it used to be Better Homes and Gardens, but as of the most recent setlists, it feels like this has taken a back seat). Happiness Is was also mostly recorded after they left Warner but before signing to Hopeless and in two separate locations with two different producers. I always found that interesting (and personally gravitate more towards the Hudson tracks vs the Sapone ones)
My best friend's band got to open for The Early November recently. I was in the crowd and looked to my right and oh shit! Ace Enders is right next to me watching. I told my buddy afterwards and he geeked out
I never really thought about Happiness Is in that way. Now I have to see which tracks Hudson and Sapone produced.
Tidal Wave complete. As I started this one it struck me how wildly sprawling their discography is. I think when they were doing a bunch of tayf shows I thought this band was kind of tired, but to have the firmly iconic tayf debut, losing two key members, having their opposite of a sophomore slump on wywtb, and their magnum mainstream opus with louder now, New again which is like a sophomore slump but as a fourth record finding themselves with Adam firmly as the front man, and then very consistently inventive albums as the og lineup returning is a wild journey. Deep respect for the adaptability of this band and Adam as a frontman through all of this but valuing collaborators throughout is really unique. Death Wolf into Tidal Wave is a bizarre sequencing. I LOVE tidal wave as a song. It’s cheesy, but it made its way onto a running playlist and I almost always repeat it when it comes on shuffle. Can’t look back chorus whoops ass, the bridge is a cool mix of the quiet part in make damn sure and then the layered vocals and full band coming in kind of sounds like a throwback to tayf, but it’s all subtle. Fences has a tiny little nod to untitled blink era drum part that came out of nowhere. This whole era has a lot of strong choruses, this album seems built around choruses. Lots of killer choruses into bridges and outros, not so strong on verses. Whoever produced this seemed to have a vision for songs and brought a lot to it. Holy Water rips. This record would be a good long drive listen. Probably the one I’d be most interested to listen to again. Mark seems to be stuggling rn, but dude is a killer drummer and it shows on this one.
Annnnd now I’m going to revisit Tidal Wave in its entirety because it’s been a minute since I’ve heard it in full.
Best review of Tidal Wave imo. I wish I could like Holy Water more, I still just can't get into Adam's voice on that one.