I’m pretty sure they did address it at one point and brushed it off, it was definitely posted about in this thread
STOP right there criminal scum! This is a current TDS ranking checkpoint.. here's mine: 1. Reach for the Sun 2. Mother Nature 3. Golden Record 4. If You could only Keep Me Alive 5. War Paint 6. Dangerous Summer 7. Coming Home 8. All that is left of the Blue Sky
Reach War Paint Mother Nature BIG GAP If You Could Only Keep Me Alive Golden Record The Dangerous Summer Blue Sky Coming Home The top three are essentially tied for me. Really adore all three of those records, and they all defined entire seasons of my life in really meaningful ways. The others all have a little bit of the magic of those three, but not on the same level.
My hot take is that you could take the 12 best songs from the bottom five on my list, put them all on one album, and it still wouldn't be as good as Reach for the Sun or War Paint.
This is correct. The only song I find to truly be a standout from those records is This Is Life. That outro is incredible.
I find Catholic Girls and Infinite to be possibly their 2 best songs. So I do think the later albums have some of their best work. For me War Paint is very consistent of course but Infinite is like a religious experience, that ending especially. As a single song probably their peak for me (hope they bring that back as closer)
Golden Record would be higher for me if 1) AJ didn’t sound so strained and 2) This wasn’t peak Cody being a menace to society. I have a hard time separating the songs from him being a complete idiot.
I took your post as a fun Homework Asignment lol. It was tricky.. I think this would be a banger tho! I think it could challenge War Paint but it be tough Catholic Girls Fire I would Stay Dimensional Love Sins Fuck them all Miles Apart Lie to Me Ghosts Here we are After Dark This is Life Infinite
This is solid, and I think you hit most of the big ones. I'd probably swap "Fuck Them All" (I can't NOT hear "fuck the mall" when AJ sings that song) with "Come Down," which I think is one of their most successful "everything we do is midtempo now" tracks. And I might try to find room for "Live Forever" or "When I Get Home," both of which I like a lot. But I still don't think it's as good a set of songs as those first two full-lengths!
I did find it hard to find heavier/up tempo ones. So live forever and When i get home would help. If I could have used Mother Nature songs, I think it be right up there (for me)
Mother Nature for me is ALMOST on the level of the first two and is a very successful album in its own right, so I didn't feel the need to include it. The rest of those, I rarely listen all the way through and don't find particularly compelling as full-album experiences, but they all have a few great songs.
Bands don't really do Best ofs anymore it seems cause people can just make playlists. A Dangerous summer best of be interesting. I do think it be reach, war paint, and mother nature exclusively for the songs. But Catholic Girls, Infinite and some others would be on there too
War Paint Reach Mother Nature If You Could Only Keep Me Alive A 500 mile gap Golden Record The Dangerous Summer Blue Sky Coming Home They reach some really strong highs on some of the records I don't love. Catholic Girls, Miles Apart (was used as one of our wedding songs actually), Ghosts, Infinite are all TDS songs I'd rank really high but are just on albums I mostly don't care about in full.
I recently re-visited Golden Record on a trip I went on and found myself liking it much more than I remembered but I still don't think it comes close to the top 4 on my personal list. War Paint and Reach were formative records for me and really carried me through some of the worst/best times of my life. Mother Nature was as close to a return to form for them imo as they can get.
I discovered them on Golden Record, so that raspy voice IS the Dangerous Summer sound for me. It gave it an interesting edge. I do see how some people preferred the softer style of Reach, but hearing the Golden Record first made It different as the starting point. It seems since then he's been a good mix of the softer singing and the Rasp. Definitely pulled it back from GR
It's funny that Cody is being brought up here and it was a decent part of the questions and discussion at the drinkers club I was in. Honestly, the recordings of TDS live on this tour do zero justice or they just had a good night. Even first and forever rocked the house. Didn't stay for Emarosa.
Those are the only 2 songs I can listen to on GR. Golden Record is just not for me. I can't get through it and I have tried so many times.
War Paint Reach for the Sun Mother Nature The Dangerous Summer If You Could Only Keep Me Alive Golden Record ATILOTBS Coming Home War Paint is so special. I understand why lots of people put Reach at #1 but War Paint surpasses it for me. There is so much urgency and heart in that record. Self-Titled and Mother Nature came close to rekindling that feeling, but War Paint just makes me want to put my life back together. "Hold my hands out like I'm starting to break, I'm seeing now what I'm doing to the people around me. I'm not supposed to care this much. And I ask myself, who am I? Well, to anything, have I lost my health? I still harbor all my anger. I've been staring at the colors in my veins, How they stay, How I still feel I'm tired, but awake. And somewhere out there there is someone Thinking of what I haven't gave them yet, And feeling that I can't in my disarray."
Mother Nature, in retrospect, feels like a last transmission from a simpler time. That album defined that summer for me, and because it was the last summer before COVID, that feels particularly poignant looking back. Maybe more than any album, it reminds me of a way of life I didn't know was gone until it was gone.
Having gotten into the band with Mother Nature, then going from the start, I am confident saying Mother Nature is just as good as War Paint. I prefer it because it's not as heavy and I'm getting old I suppose. I think Starting Over might be the best song they have done since RFTS. RFTS Mother Nature War Paint The Dangerous Summer Coming Home Blue Sky Golden Record