The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 375

It's a great album, probably wouldn't have picked it up based on the album art alone but yeah, pretty good album. Bit dark once you listen to the lyrics but it's a good pickmeup. Cheers for recommending it :)!

 

That Mansions album is great, they have one of the most underrated discographies around.

 

Yeah I’m similar with the Counting Crows, I didn’t get into them until about 10 years ago (around the time Gaslight Anthem started referencing them in songs). It was at that point I delved into their discography and fell in love with them. Prior to that I mainly knew them as that Mr Jones band (tbf they were never as massive here as in the US).

 

Cool reading a review of this album, their first three will always mean a lot to me.

Enjoyed your thoughts on "Busted." An underappreciated gem in the back half of the album, IMO. Such a dirty sounding song that shows a darker side to the band. Those guitars and that great chorus. Mmm

 

This week I was paired with @anonimito . When they gave me a list of recommendations I happily scooped up Tides Of Man- Every Nothing. I really enjoyed their last record, and this gave me a forceful reason to get to their new record.

As many of you probably know, Tides Of Man were the original band vocalist for Dance Gavin Dance Tillian was in. I never really enjoyed them until their last record which was their first record where they attempted post-rock. Oddly enough, I think the Tillian-era of DGD is their strongest yet. I thought their 2014 release Young And Courageous was a great first attempt at getting their feet wet in the post-rock genre, which is easily a favorite genre of mine (my first time paired with @anonimito I actually recommended a If These Trees Could Talk record) I was hoping/expecting for them to have mastered the art even more on this record.

The record begins with “Static Hymn” which started slow, and built into a nice epic heavier outro which led seamlessly into the next track “Mercury Fields” which began slow with a nice soothing bassline, and delayed guitar. The drum fill around the 1:30 mark was a nice transition that took the song to a higher energy level that played out for the rest of the track. I also really enjoyed the guitar tones on this song. “New Futures” began with a drum fill, before going into a 80’s esque bassline with minimal guitar before kicking into guitar reminiscent of a band like U2. I liked the way they set the tone in this track, and tried something different. The song “Far Off” felt more like an interlude than a proper song with mostly piano and a short run-time under 3 minutes. It introduced the song “Old 88” which began with a slow, folk inspired guitar riff before the full band came in. When the “pay-off” of the song came in it was good, but it didn’t seem good enough for the fact that it has a lead-in track prior to it. I was expecting something much bigger. The next track “Waxwing” seemed more deserving of an intro to it, and was one of the strong tracks on the front-half of the record. With two dueling guitar parts that both commanded your attention. “Keep Telling Yourself” felt like another interlude track and I feel like introduced the second half of the record. I feel like it separated the record into two parts, like you had just flipped over to Side B of the wax (even though I listened digitally) “Everything Is Fine, Everyone Is Happy” started off with a heavy bassline, before an eerie guitar part came in. This was one of the more unique songs on the record, and easily a highlight for me. “Death Is No Dread Enemy” was the longest song on the record clocking in at 7:19 but it didn’t feel long, and was a good track. “Outside Ourselves” was a very moody track, and began with some gorgeous clean guitar, with some subtle strings behind it. “Mosaic” was a very strong track in which the band really all showcased their skills, the bass player especially walking up and down the fretboard on this track and really impressing me. The record ended with “Infinite Ceiling” which besides being a cool song name, was a great track. It felt like a proper closing track, and showed hope for what I’d like a record of theirs to sound like in it’s entirety with swirling guitars and an epic feeling to it.

It’s also worth noting that the cover for this record is an accurate cover that I think really captures the mood of this record. This would make a great night drive record (as most post-rock tends to) I think that Tides Of Man didn’t take the big step up I was hoping they would with this effort, and while they’re not a top-tier band in the genre yet, I wouldn’t rule them out from becoming one, with more time spent in the genre in their future records. I would love to hear a record with more “pay-off” moments as is standard with most post-rock bands. They captured moments like that very well in tracks like “Static Hymns” and “Outside Ourselves”

It also looks like they had some incredible variants made for this record:






Favorite songs: “Static Hymns” “Mercury Fields” “Waxwing” “Everything Is Fine, Everyone Is Happy” “Mosaic” “Infinite Ceiling”

 

Looks like the album resonated a lot back then with people but it's doing that with me right now. It's a good album!

 

Here for the vinyl porn. Well written review too! I need to check this out.

 

Accidentally in Love by The Counting Crows is such a good song but I've never really listened to them. Gonna check out their first LP sooner than later

 

That top record

Nice review mate, this sounds cool. I’ll have to add it to my list of stuff to check out.

 

Outside of the record Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, their entire discography is a must listen!

 

I got a lot of music on my plate, Larry.

 

My favorites are Anna Begins and Round Here.

 

Funny, I am listening to Anna Begins rn.

 

I can't really infer what you are saying with that gif.

 

I think A Murder Of One is prob my favourite Counting Crows track. August is obvs my favourite release by them but I think their latest is my second favourite album now (it’s between that or This Dessert Life).

 

I think my favorite might be a toss up between August and Recovering the Satellites.

 

August is definitely my favourite, recovering is great too though, it’s only just behind those others in my list.

If I was to do my order it’d be:

August>Somewhere Under Wonderland=This Desert Life>Recovering The Satellites>>Underwater Sunshine>Hard Candy>Saturday Nights

 

I love This Desert Life. Might be my favorite CC album. Song-wise not much can top "A Long December."

 

Yeah A Long December is definitely top 5 for me.

Edit: Sod it im gonna do a list

5) Rain King
4) A Long December
3) Palisades Park
2) Round Here
1) A Murder Of One

 

This week I was paired with @Bad Frequencies and he they gave me Hopesfall - Magnetic North


I'm a bit familiar with this band as I have listened to their most recent album Arbiter and 2004's A Types, but I somehow missed this album. 2007's Magnetic North is an awesome album! Unfortunately we would have to wait 11 years for another album from this band. The album was released in May of 2007 and in July basically everyone left the band except for the singer Jay Forrest, even the new members that were fill-ins for the Magnetic North tour of that year. Supposedly, Hopesfall and their label at the time Trustkill was a bit bumpy to say the least. Apparently, the lable changed the track listing without the band knowing and allegedly did not give the band proper support for the album and didn't give them enough money as well. This is unfortunate because this album right from the beginning is really, really good. The opening track RX Contender The Pretender hits you right away and the album doesn't really let up. The vocals on this album really stand out to me. Forrest's voice is really clear and compliments the music really well. With recently listening to Arbiters, I'm gonna go back and listed to A Types because I had forgotten how good this band was. I hope they continue to make music and I hope I get to see them live. Thanks @Bad Frequencies for the rec!

 

Man I thought the first Capital Cities album was a fun pop record, but this new one is no bueno

 

Anyone want to do a bonus review?

 

Great record and great review. It’s a shame that Josh from Trustkill got greedy towards the tale end of the labels run because that label put out some of my favorite hardcore records.

 

I'm up for a bonus review if you've had no takers