The Bouncing Souls Band • Page 4

Summer Vacation, Anchors Aweigh, and The Gold Record are the sweet spot for me. All are pretty flawless.

Hopeless Romantic is okay, but I can't get into anything before that. All the albums following The Gold Record are pretty hit-or-miss as a whole, but each album has 4-5 excellent songs.

 

Top 3 for me are Summer Vacation, Maniacal Laughter and Hopeless Romantic

 

Summer Vacation will always be their all-time classic. I'd recommend listening to The Gold Record after that and then checking out Hopeless Romantic, Anchors Aweigh, and Crucial Moments. If you're not sold on the band by then you're probably never going to be lol.

The stretch from Hopeless Romantic - The Gold Record is pretty untouchable.

 

Yeah, Hopeless Romantic has a slightly different vibe than the rest - so I get that. Largely because, as a whole, it kinda feels like the slower songs on the later records. But it has some of their best songs too ("Night On Earth," "87," the title track). And I think "You're So Rad" and "Wish Me Well" have remarkable replay value despite being joke songs.

You also aren't wrong about all the post-Gold stuff too, though I think each of those albums is worth listening to in full at least once... Because what people find to be the "excellent" songs tends to vary a lot from person to person, I've found.

 

Hopeless Romantic feels like the pivot point for them where they started to get more serious. I love the first 4 songs on there, but then I feel like it's a little too jokey for me. And as much as I love a lot of fun early songs like "Say Anything" or "Lamar Vannoy," I can't really get through any of those albums.

Agreed about the post-Gold Record output, too. All are decent and worth giving a shot. Might be missing some of the magic of the earlier stuff, but they're pretty solid and sprinkled with great songs.

 

Lots of highs post-Gold Record. Ghosts on the Boardwalk is one of their all-time best songs.

 

Gasoline, Never Say Die, Ghosts On The Boardwalk, Dubs Says True, Fast Times, Coin Toss Girl, Ship In A Bottle and Writing on The Wall are all really solid post Gold Record songs

 

I'd also add Big Eyes, Comet, In Sleep, Up to Us, and Favorite Everything to that list.

 

Oh yeah I totally forgot to include Crucial Moments. I love the whole EP! Also do love those other songs too, I don’t mind the later albums as much as I feel like most people do. I really don’t think they’ve made a bad record

 

Tired lyrical content aside, I'd add "Static" onto the list from Comet. "Euophoria," "Hey Aliens," and "Hero Zero" from Simplicity are pretty fun too.

I've revised both albums recently and they're a bit more memorable than I initially thought.

I second the full Crucial Moments EP too! That release is a good snapshot of the band's entire discography, IMHO. With some of the best songs they've ever written ("Favorite Everything" and "1989").

 

Really weird how Comet isn’t on Apple Music

 

Random update on a Bouncing Souls side-project from the Patreon podcast considering that this thread is bumping again: Beach Rats have been practicing and are about to hit the studio to record an LP.

Same deal as last time. Most of the songs are under two minutes, fast, and melodic. Really stoked to hear that new music is coming from them!

 

Great news. I really enjoyed their EP.

 

Very excited for VOL. 2. The pre-released songs sound great.

 

Oh, and in no specific order, its Summer Vacation, Golden Record, and Simplicity for me.

 

Oh and Ghosts On The Boardwalk is an incredibly underrated album.

 

I fully agree. It's definitely the best of the later records

 

VOLUME 2 is awesome. They did a really great job with this.

I LOVE Face To Face's acoustic album and I can totally see VOL 2 end up there with it as far as quality and reimagining songs go. I'm excited to spend more time with this.

 

The Bouncing Souls announce virtual Home for the Holidays show, from Will Yip's Studio 4

 

On the latest episode of the Souls' Patreon podcast (with Matt from the Bronx as a guest) they mentioned that they are having "discussions" about potentially doing a Stoked for the Summer-style show outdoors at the Stone Pony in the fall.

 

Fuck yes haven’t listened yet but I’ll be there (and hopefully they do Maniacal 25 year and Summer Vacation 20 year plays)

 

That's the most notable Souls nugget in the episode. Some pretty cool stuff about what the Bronx have been up to, what the plans are for their next album's worth of songs, etc.

Nothing else was new, really about the Souls... Except for the usual random jabs that George makes at other bands and industry folks. His sarcastic, "innocent" mockery of other bands is easily my favorite part of that podcast. The best was when he said something about how the Dropkick Murphys required all band members to do time in the military or police force prior to joining. It's that and every guest commenting on the lights in his office and how proud he is of them.

 

Nice! Matt is always a fun listen. Hahaha yeah the lights comments with George happen every time. The last episode about all the boat shows and stuff was really great

 

Just got an e-mail asking about a time for my Patreon Zoom call so they can write a song about my partner and I. Equally stoked and nervous about this!

 

That's awesome! Let us know how it goes