Every subsequent album has a bigger ratio of unlistenable songs I'll say I Like It is my favorite, even though Loving Someone and the last two songs are mediocre The self-titled next. Zero skipprs Then Brief Inquiry, though Man Who Married and Inside Your Mind I've listened to maybe three times total. The latter is their worst song, full stop Notes is last just because it has the most boring songs out of all their albums (bloat will do that). BUT it also has some of my favorite songs they've ever put out (Birthday Party, Then Because She Goes, Me & You, Too Shy, Guys). Every Phoebe Bridgers feature is a slog, a lot like everything she touches
this band has exactly one song I don’t ever care to listen to again and it’s Woman. otherwise I like or love every song they’ve put out. I just don’t always think they nail it when it comes to sequencing albums, I think ILIWYS is a bit of a fluke for me in that regard as I think it’s airtight.
never ceases to amaze me how much we can all love a band and yet people tend to blurt out the things they don’t like about them repeatedly
I was gonna say if I had one hot take it’s that the album comes to a screeching halt after love it if we made it and never hits the kind of rapid fire pacing you get out of the first five tracks
This band certainly knows how to elevate a song by adding horns--that's one thing I always look forward to
Yeah, I do think ABIIOR does start strong with the stretch of songs from Give Yourself a Try to Love It If We Made It. After that, I love songs in duos (Sincerity and I Like America, It’s Not Living and Surrounded, Couldn’t Be and Always Wanna Die), but there’s never another stretch of strong songs like there we early on.
yeah like I genuinely enjoy every single track but just not in love with how it all comes together to form the whole.
I will never forget the first time I heard "Robbers". That song will always make me cry big fat ugly tears.
I think ILIWYS is a better executed version of what the self-titled tried to be and ABIIOR is a better executed version of NOACF.
first album is full of bops but I find more substance in the subsequent albums, and MUCH preferable production for my tastes. something about it feels sorta flat or one dimensional to my ears. I tend to like those songs better live across the board.
I agree with basically all this, except if Paris is being counted in the last run of ballads. I love Paris. But the instrumentals are such a slog and the album just kind of drags on for me. Still though, the highs are so high that I'd call it my 2nd favorite from them, with A Brief Inquiry easily sitting in the #1 spot.
moving away from the mike crossey sheen and producing basically everything by themselves was huge imo the s/t has that 2013 *indie pop* gloss on it that was probably huge in getting their name out there @ that time but they were right to abandon it still love the record tho
didn’t Crossey do ILIWYS as well? I think that’s still their best sounding record, and took the general framework they were working with on the S/T and added a ton of depth and dimension to the sonic landscapes throughout. I don’t think what bothers me is a “sheen” as much as it is just… sterility.
he's credited on both and I def thought he was only on the first one as a producer but mixed and/or mastered the later records