That's actually funny because Lancaster and AJ were tweeting back and forth at each other on Twitter and my immediate thought was "god I'd love to hear those two on a record together." Then again, both of their last albums were boring to me, so maybe not.
Yeah specifically John's performance on American Candy sounds similar to AJ. And yeah I'm definitely enjoying them. Really hoping there is actually new music coming so I can experience that in real time with everyone else. Also because I know it would make a ton of people on here pretty happy.
I've had some friends bugging me to check em out for a while and now that AJ comparison makes me really wanna, haha
They've definitely progressed a lot from their early days as a fairly standard "scene" band. Their run of Pioneer-Forever Halloween-American Candy has been pretty good. Looking forward to their next album. Like I said though, could just be me that hears the similarities so take what I say with a grain of salt haha
I can totally hear some AJ in John's vocals on the last few albums, but I would never think of John when listening to AJ haha. On the other hand, John's vocal inflection has gotten kinda annoying to me, so it's weird that I can hear a definite similarity but enjoy their vocals to much different degrees.
On a whim started listening to War Paint for the first time last week, guess I picked a good time to hop on.
RFTS>GR>If You Could Only>WP. They're all great though, really. This thread led me to listen to them all weekend. And on music alone, this band is top shelf. Really. Those records really are something special. It would be amazing if we could have a chance to just evaluate them on music without the shenanigans. Also, RFTS Acoustic is something I haven't heard many people mention, but is fantastic. Those songs are, essentially, perfect, whether with a band or just a guitar.
First impressions of Golden Record: honestly surprised to see how divisive it has been. It's definitely different from their earlier work, and I can see how the grittiness in AJ's voice could be a turnoff for people, but I still like it a lot. It also isn't as diffeeent as I was expecting based on the way it's been described on here. Could just be because I'm a TDS noob but I can definitely see how War Paint leads to Golden Record. That said, it is definitely my least favorite of the three full-lengths, but its still pretty good.
The problem with Golden Record isn't really that it's a departure. More that there are four or five songs that just don't live up to the standard they set on the first album.
When I listen to the album, to me, It just feels like they tried too hard with it. The album doesn't seem as natural as the first two records. Especially AJ's vocals.
My biggest complaint with Golden Record is it just felt like a bunch of mid-tempo songs that all sound extremely similar, causing it to blend together and not stand out at all. There's a few songs I really enjoy from that album though.
You didn't like ALIR or Do overs? I actually think I like more songs every other record he's been involved with
So, initially, coming from the perspective of someone who has literally no background with this band, my ranking would be: RFTS > War Paint> IYCOKMA > Golden Record. That said, I have to say, I'm really pissed at myself for never having listened to this band back when it would have most affected me. These guys were crazy talented and put out (in my opinion) three very strong records that I really enjoyed listening to. Wish I had the same memories attached to them as most people here seem to, but, you know, I obviously have other bands with memories like that attached to them so it's not that important to my enjoyment of these songs. Suffice it to say that I will be listening to a lot of TDS in the near future, I think.
I can see that. It certainly has its flaws, namely the poor flow and AJ's sometimes over the top raspy vocals. But to me, the songs are more compelling than much of War Paint.
Don't like any Go Radio except Close the Distance, and ALIR is okay but ranks pretty low among Mayday albums for me, plus I think the Derek songs on it are waaaay better.
Golden Record sounded strange to me - but I feel like that was because only half of the band was left. The dudes from The Graduate were perfect though so I can't complain. It's a good album - but I think RFTS is my favorite from them. That album really helped me when my grandmother passed away.