The Flatliners - New Ruin (August 5th, 2022)

Tracklist:

1. Performative Hours
2. Rat King
3. Big Strum
4. Top Left Door
5. It’ll Hurt
6. Oath
7. Recoil
8. Souvenir
9. Tunnel Vision
10. Heirloom
11. Under a Dying Sun

 

rock me

 

Gonna be a long 2 months, stoked to see them in 2 weeks though

 

wow

 

Excited for this - in the meantime will be checking out Inviting Light, as I really forgot about that one. Not sure what was going on around that time in 2017, but one of those ones that slipped through and I never really revisited.

 

New song is somehow even more boring than anything on Inviting Light. Not pumped about it.

 

I like it, not as much as Performative though

Thought they might try to just go back to their roots with this but after seeing them play a ton of Inviting Light last week and now this new single seems like they're just moving forward

Which I don't mind at all

 

Pretty good song imo

 

2/2 for me so far

 

Ehh/10. Really wish this sounded more like Dead Language, their last album on Fat.

 

I like it. Least favorite of the singles released so far but it is still a good, solid song.

 

Alright, I'm finishing my 2nd listen and I'm enjoying it more this time around than the first. I already liked it on first listen.

 

The first half was dragging for me but the 2nd half picked up. Album is definitely better than Inviting Light (that isn't saying much) but it still lacks the hooks that their older stuff had. I get that they're older and different people than when they were 16yr old kids writing Destroy To Create, but I can't figure out how the whole band decided this was the direction to go in. And I can't figure out why this is being put out on Fat, of all labels.

 

The songs are good and there are way more hooks here than there were on DTC (a good album but also their worst tbh, Cavalcade is top Flatliners material) plus the guitar work is really good.

 

I listened to the album 4 times today and I can barely remember a single riff or chorus besides Rat King. There are no hooks.

 

You don't have to like the hooks but that is objectively untrue. You can call the hooks bad, but they remain hooks nonetheless (plus they are pretty good)

Meanwhile, I find it very easy to remember the songs and their hooks after just 2 listens. Anyone that denies the hooks in the very first song, the very first single... how can you pretend Performative Hours does not have a great hook? It has been stuck in my head practically since the day it was released and kept me hooked & excited for the album.

 

Big Strum and Top Left Door were massive disappointments on first listen, but mostly enjoying this otherwise.

 

On my first listen and don't mind Big Strum but agreed on Top Left Door.

Recoil is fun.

 

Enjoyed my first listen, Oath was the standout for me

 

Oath is fucking huge and in a weird way musically reminds me of Skiba era Blink 182, but way better.

Big Strum and Top Left Door still let me down so much, to such a big level that it kinda drops the whole album a peg for me.

 

Wait, both of those songs rule tho

 

Yeah I’m not understanding the hate for Top Left Door

 

Alright, I'll try and not skip it on my next listen, see what's going on.