The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 370

I might make a playlist for this 10 song thing tomorrow but if anyone wants to check out my playlists on Spotify my username is the same as here.

I tend to make ridiculously long playlists that cover all sorts of genres.

 

Are you wanting it here or on Apple Music

 

One of my 10 songs will definitely be Sleep - Dopesmoker

 

Apple Music

 

The Format. What a band.

 

@awwgereee

 

One of my top Jack's Mannequin tracks!

 

ATL is such a bloody good song, I Butch.

 

My all-time favorite artist, for sure

 

He’s definitely one of my favs. What’s you favourite Butch album, mines probably Sycamore Meadows if I had to pick one, all his albums are great though.

Have you read his book? If not you really should. It’s proper funny and is full of Butch’s charm, plus he has some amazing stories.

 

Finishing my review for Thrice - Vheissu right now. Fuck.

 

I think mine is Sycamore Meadows as well, but the thing I love about Butch is that he has material for any style/mood/etc. Other than SM getting a slight edge because it was released at an influential time in my life, I would have an extremely difficult time ranking the rest of his discography (other than Left of Self Centered being at the end haha). I love all his other children equally.

I did read his book and loved it!

 

I’ve actually got a signed copy of Sycamore on vinyl which I bought off eBay, I had no idea it was signed until it turned up in the post haha.

I have a soft spot for Left if Self Centered even though it’s probably his worst, there’s some great pop rock on there.

I didn’t get into Butch until the Black Widows album but absolutely fell in love with his whole back catalog straight away. I agree though it’s way to hard to rank his albums.

 

Aaah Sycamore Meadows on vinyl is my white whale. I've only ever seen one copy pop up between Discogs and eBay and I have much regret for not buying it. That's awesome that you got a signed copy!

There is definitely some good stuff on LOSC, even if I'd put it solidly behind his other releases. Great pop rock for sure!

My story is similar, got into Butch with SM and fell hard for his back catalog, been a huge fan ever since.

 

Review: Thrice - Vheissu
Release Date: 18th October 2005
Trading Partner: @bachna84

Thrice is an American rock band from Irvine, California, formed in 1998. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi. Vheissu is Thrice’s fourth studio album.

When the first thing you see on the album’s Wikipedia page is: “The album has endured the test of time and is now commonly seen as Thrice's greatest album and one of the greatest post-hardcore albums ever made” then you realise that you are in for a beautiful, suspenseful ride. Now I’ll admit that I’m not a post-hardcore fan, not that I dislike the genre; it’s just not my “go-to” but I was pretty damn excited to give this a try.

I’m just going to begin by saying that this album changed my view on the genre and made me really appreciate the true art of songwriting. It seems that there is so much complexity to these songs however it does not overburden us by having us overanalyse everything.

The album begins with “Image of the Invisible”; a fast-paced, rowdy anthem that has you screaming along with Dustin Kensrue. It is a rallying chant that is very easy to get into. In between these shouts Dustin whispers “We’re more static than static and dial tone, we’re emblematic of the unknown” which conveys such a “fuck everything” attitude. When an opening song introduces Morse Code that spells out the title, you know that this isn’t your standard album.

Thrice has shown that they have experimented musically on this album. There are still their complex time signatures and textures but this time Thrice have shown such sophistication that is conveyed perfectly. “The Earth Will Shake” opens with an acoustic intro playing over Kensrue’s soothing voice that sounds like he is playing in a pub with everyone sullying over their beer and humming to such perfect music. This then turns into heavy, rampaging sounds with Kensrue’s now-raw vocals banging at your eardrums. There’s a prison gang-like vocal breakdown about 3 minutes into the song that is so simply layered before the drums start and you’re lost in teen angst again.

“Atlantic” is a haunting tune that reaches heights with Kensrue’s vocals and the use of a vibraphone. Scarily enough, the beginning gave me an eerie Silent Hill-esque image and that alone was majorly creepy. This song is downright beautiful and showcases the sadness and absence of love with “it's been so long, and tin cans and string for years is all that we've known, could it be that you're really here”. It showcases the bands more mature side.

“For Miles” starts with a gorgeous piano introduction whilst Kensrue promotes a soothing, strong delivery. It has a swelling passion for anger-centric gusto. This is a song that delves into the talent of the full band with mellow yet shredding music from Teppei Teranishi, Edward Breckenridge, and Riley Breckenridge. The guitars and vocals at the end of the song are as enormously loud as previous efforts and could easily break the drums off your speakers.

“Hold Fast for Hope” is the band going back to their roots vocally. There’s still a post rock orchestral sound to the song with some metallic undercurrents. This is the Thrice that I am used to listening to back when Artist in the Ambulance hit and shows the group reverting to old tricks.

“Music Box” begins with a music box tinkle then explodes into such visceral intensity. Kensrue’s vocals are almost angelic that flow over a gristly drum and organ. The song ends as it begins; full-circle with a tinkling music box.

Thrice continue to show that they are more than punk rockers on “Like Moths to Flame”. Kensrue dives into strained screaming before the song turns into such musical epilepsy. This song is the band putting all of their influences into the blender and juicing out a song that has quiet moments that grind into a strong climax. There are strong lyrics; “I will die for you” that portray the low, sombre tone of the song with such heavy impact.

There is yet another haunting shift from “Of Dust and Nations” which is a wall of guitars over Kensrue’s important vocals. Surprisingly, I felt this was probably the most straightforward track of the entire album. The highlight of this track was a guitar shimmer towards the end of the track which gave it that something different that every other song had present.

“Stand And Feel Your Worth” is yet another song that begins with such calm, hallucinatory wafting of 8-bit RPG music before Kensrue hits you with head-banging swaying of his vocals. This is another generic post-modern song that doesn’t really fit with the experimentation of the album and was my least favourite.

Closing track “Red Sky”, my favourite on the album, goes for a percussive vocal sound at the intro and breaks out into a straightforward, epic delivery. This song truly showcases the bands efforts. It’s a lyrically metaphorical ballad of dangerously sailing under red skies to “raise an empire from the bottom of the sea”. It fits in the story of Armageddon which is a fitting metaphor for this album; it’s deathly yet eternal and a true story of Thrice and their impact on the “scene”.

Vheissu is a fantastic album. It’s a musically challenging, diverse attempt at Thrice being stubborn enough to not fit into any specific type of musical genre. This is a genre that is usually criticised for lack of diversity and Thrice’s talented quartet has shown listeners that you can still stick to your roots whilst being varied. They have strayed from the punk/scream image and emerged with Vheissu, a self-sustained, passionate craft that makes for a hell of an album.

 

Yeah, this album is stunning. I listened to it a ton in high school. Hold Fast Hope is my favorite.

 

Fantastic review for a fantastic album!

 

Thanks! The album had such hype in here that I was scared to review it but I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

 

Awesome review!!! This is one of my favorite albums and I’m so glad it went over well with you :)

 

I've got 2 fairly late reviews for @Bad Frequencies here sorry they're late mate. I'll preface these reviews by saying that I've not really given these albums as many playthroughs as I'd normally want to before reviewing them (usually I try to give each album at least 3 or 4 full plays). The reason for this is I've been a mixture of really busy and ill the last few weeks but it's getting to the point where I really needed to do them or they weren't gonna happen.


Real Friends - Composure (2018)



So the other week @Bad Frequencies gave me this album by Real Friends to review. I'd heard of Real Friends but I'm not sure if I'd listened to them previously as a lot of this gen of pop-punk has kinda passed me by.

If you haven't heard of Real Friends before they play pop-punk in the style of The Story So Far, Trash Boat and bands like that. It's fast paced pop-punk with a slight emo tinge to it. Their vocalist Dan reminds me a lot of AJ from The Dangerous Summer if he were to write more upbeat faster songs.

So while I only dabble in this genre nowadays I thought this album was pretty good and definitely one of the better pop-punk albums I've heard in the last year or two. It starts really strong with Me First, Stand Steady and From The Outside which all have massive choruses. Then there's a couple of tracks I wasn't as keen on. Unconditional Love I thought was pretty great for one of the slower paced more emo tracks on here and again it has a massive chorus (this band know how to write some hooks). Get By was great and reminded me a little of The Atari's (In This Diary era). Then it finished on a real banger in Take a Hint. Most of the lyrics on this album tend to tread a lot of the pop-punk tropes but they're still mostly enjoyable.

All in all this album was a great listen and while it's not exactly ground breaking it had plenty of great tracks throughout. I found it was a prefect soundtrack for the summer weather we've been having here in the UK the last few weeks.

RIYL: Can't Swim, Trash Boat, The Dangerous Summer
Favourite Tracks: Me First, Stand Steady, Unconditional Love, Take a Hint


Out Of Service - Morning (2018)



Well next up @Bad Frequencies gave me the debut album by Out Of Service, which contains one of our own in @teebs41 on guitar.

So for those of you who don't know this band they're a emo/alt rock band from New Jersey that's kind of a cross between the later day Thrice, Manchester Orchestra side of things crossed with the earlier emo movement from the late 90's early 00's.

So first thing that stood out to me on this is that I love the guitar tone on this album, it's got a really nice warmth to it that I loved and some mighty fine riffing scattered about the album too, like in the awesome song The Escape. This album reminds me as kind of a modern take on the whole deep elm emo movement form the early 2000's. The guitars particularly remind me of that whole sound with the jangly styled guitars layered over a great rhythm section.

The vocalist Mike reminds me little bit of the guy from The Appleseed Cast mixed with someone like Kevin Devine and the guy has some great range shown throughout here. From his more mellow styled singing on tracks like Pillars and The Sun and the Sea, to his soaring vocals on the likes of Between Cousins and The Whole World.

So yeah I really liked this album and I really need to give it the time it deserves, if I had to pick a favourite track at this point it'd probably be Just Between Us. I love the pacing of the track and how it builds up to chorus, which Mike particularly shines on.

This album will definitely be getting a load more plays from me in the near future. It's an amazing achievement for a band to putting out such a strong debut album like this. Thanks @Bad Frequencies for introducing me to this album and thanks to @teebs41 (and his band mates) for writing such a great album.

RIYL: The Appleseed Cast, Sunny Day Real Estate, Manchester Orchestra, later day Thrice
Favourite Tracks: Just Between Us, Kestrel, The Whole World, The Escape, The Sun and The Sea.

 

wow thanks for the kind words! Just Between Us is definitely my favorite song that we've written so thats a good one to pick!

 

thanks Kevo for continuing to recommend our album to people who may like it.

 

That’s cool, it really is a great track. I will add this albums really growing on me with each and every listen. I’ll definitely be jamming this for a long while.

 

Great reviews man!! I’m glad they sat so well with you especially OOS.

No worries on being late. I am behind on reviews myself, owing reviews to you @GBlades @anonimito and @edisnfg myself