”Granted” seems to be an acoustic track, if the live performances of it are anything to go by. But it could certainly be more fleshed out on the record
I've seen Blame live a few times and it was everything I ever want out them, there's something Kenny and the band knows how to crunch in their songs as good as any band in the genre ever. All I'm saying, I think it's going to be a good ride.
I can’t stop listening to Circulate. Totally got me interested in this album, and I like Sense of Humor as well. Because of Circulate, I listened to all their albums today. I disliked as much of Based on a True Story as I remembered, but I forgot how good Say It Like You Mean It is! I loved The Best of Me back in the day but that’s not even the best song on the record? Direction was the biggest surprise of the day, though. I think by the time that one came out, I was listening to less music like it and had sort of written TSL off. I definitely listened to it, but probably only once, if even the whole record. Apparently that was my loss - just based on today’s discog run, that was the obvious winner, and I suspect I’ll be returning to it quite a bit in the lead up to this new one.
Love both of these new tracks. Glad to see them coming back with something that feels both fresh and authentic. Also stoked I will have this, Thrice, MCS, and Yellowcard to soundtrack my next marathon at the beginning of November.
Direction is a complete album that merited mainstream success but just came out at a time when that style of music was just kind of run through. Also, I encourage you to give BOATS more of a chance with some skippers. Suprise, B-List, Stay Where I Can See You and Ready are songs that never leave my rotation.
This song deserves a BIG pit. Just imagine the crowd pulling itself apart, widening the circle during the “dah dah dah” build through the second chorus, and then when he screams the last “ready for the sun” before the bridge and the strummed guitars, the fucking heavens open up. I can see this clear as day in my mind. I will make it happen at a Minnesota date.
On the Jack Antonoff front, still blows my mind that the dude from Steel Train became the biggest songwriter in the world.
Dude from Outline! iykyk I use to see his band when I was like 14 at the local knights of columbus and he was like 16 and had a drummer who was 12. Good times. They were pretty awesome at the time though as far as local jersey bands.
on one hand it's absolutely wild, but on the other hand the path from Steel Train to fun. to Bleachers to producing.... it all does make logical sense, he oozed talent from early on
I find your writings so relatable @Jason Tate @Craig Manning. That mindset of going at your own pace is something I'm striving for but sometimes find so difficult to achieve because the pulse to react immediately is so strong. I also struggle with that outside of music. Maybe it's peer pressure as the internet seems entirely built for around this immediacy or even urgency these days. So maybe it's a fear of losing touch, of being left out of everchanging cultural conversations. I don't know, but it definitely goes way too fast for me at times and that's when I start missing the pre-social media days. It's funny that starting mindfulness is actually helping with all this at the moment as it's about being more present in the moment by taking back control of your thoughts somehow or at least the impulse to react to them.
I want to give Tom his flowers for the drums on this song. He sounds great! I know people have questioned him before but his performances on the two latest songs are very good and promising.
These days, I feel the pressure of immediacy way more around movies and TV than I do around music. But at a certain point, I just had to realize there was no way I could keep up with everything. It was especially freeing to realize that about music, because I think the people who DO keep up with everything also only ever have time to listen to records like 2-3 times tops before moving on to the next thing. I'd rather let stuff sink in than listen to an album once, put it on my "albums listened to this year" list, and then forget about it.
there was something really cool about blindly buying a cd/album. i remember randomly buying TAYF because it was randomly sitting next to "the moon is down" by FSF in a Sam Goody.
That's how I discovered Thursday. War All The Time on CD in a random bin at a Flea Market. Saw the Victory Records logo and thought, "well Taking Back Sunday is on that label...I'll check this out for $3.". That album became by go to on rainy weather days that summer.
Circulation is something else!!! The song is hitting me so hard. It gets me so amped. Kenny coming in hot with classic blink-182 bass riff intro is fantastic. Also, whoever decided to drop the band right after the first chorus and let the drums go by themselves with the bass intro....genius. It gives the song a second wind.
That chorus is so unconventional yet somehow feels so TSL at the same time. I love it. This album is going to be so good.