The Wonder Years - The Hum Goes On Forever (Sept 23rd 2022) Album • Page 66

I'm generally not a fan of his louder, more strained delivery, but I'm ok with it in Summer Clothes as it's a brief moment right at the end

 

I think if you replaced Summer Clothes with Flowers, this would be their best record by a mile. And I don’t dislike Summer Clothes but hot damn, Flowers is such a great narrative song.

 

I definitely like Summer Clothes more than Low Tide and Oldest Daughter

 

I feel like they did this album a pretty major disservice picking the singles they did, honestly. And probably with the sequencing too

I don’t really agree with this, personally, only because I don’t feel like the whole album is strictly about being a parent as much as the press cycle made it seem

 

Lights my least fave too after sitting with this for a minute

prechorus is sick but the main hook sounds like an AI wrote it

 

Summer Clothes is literally one of my instant-favorite Wonder Years songs, haha. Loved it on first listen and I still love it every single time I hit play. Definitely works for me.

Least favorite song on the album is PROBABLY Wyatt’s Song or Oldest Daughter but I still really like them. I just don’t love that they’re back to back.

 

Paris is bottom of the pack for me. It’s still very good.

 

You know what, I may try to resequence this album at some point, since that’s a fun little project. However I don’t think it’s as badly/weirdly sequenced as some others here think it is.

 

I think that song is the best Dan has approached anything of that style when it comes to TWY. Easily one of the best songs of their discog too

 

I didn’t pay attention to the press cycle; I listened to Oldest Daughter once and picked up on the parenting cues from listening to the record and following this thread after my first listen. I think the sequencing might be a big reason for how I feel, like you said, as the record is heavy on the parenting themes in the first 3 tracks and in the closer but then aren’t really visible inbetween. Reminds me a lot of how NCTH drops the savior gimmick after Track 5.

 

Saying the album is about “parenting” would be simplifying it so much. It’s about caring for the people in your life when you can barely care for yourself.

 

That makes a lot more sense to me. I’ll have to keep that frame in mind on my next listen.

 

Yeah, and the lyrical themes in all of those middle tracks definitely tie back to the themes established in the first few and tied up in the last few.

 

them trying something different doesn't make it good lol

most of the best songs on here are them staying in their lane, which they should do more often

 

The last minute of Low Tide rips.

 

this whole album rips and I love every second of it

 

I've been trying to think of how to say this without it sounding negative or like I don't appreciate the record/what everyone in the band is doing on it, but I think if this were in the Roaring Twenties style and had a lyrical few details changed to fit into that story, a lot of these songs could've made for an incredible third Aaron West album (even more than it's a really great Wonder Years album). Dan really took a bunch of those "caring for others" themes (and even some of the imagery) from Routine Maintenance and just kept going with it on this one. I'm definitely happy to have a (mostly) heavy pop-punk record to love in 2022, but I'd be lying if I hadn't thought about the counterfactual where it's more bespoke/intimate acoustic/clean guitar, keyboard, and horn arrangements of most of these songs with a few divorce/dead dad ones mixed in and it's even more of an emotional barrage than it already is.

 

The more I listen to this album, the more I think I could cut out Paris of Nowhere, Summer Clothes, and Lost it in the Lights from the middle and it would be significantly better in terms of sequencing and consistency. Going from Cardinals II to Paris feels like whiplash, whereas Songs About Death follows much more naturally. I know people are ragging on Summer Clothes and it's not my favorite, but Paris just doesn't fit on this album thematically at all

 

People speaking negatively about Paris should be banned from this website.

#SaintNickFoles

(I’m joking all opinions are welcome but seriously ban them)

 

Really should have thrown a "Big Dick Nick" in the song somewhere, too.

But for real, I love that song

 

This. Good song but this is the only song that sounds like a retread to me

 

Paris reminds me a lot of Summers in PA—one of the weaker tracks but feels so definitively TWY that I can’t hate it

 

I consider it Coffee Eyes pt 2 - ode to the hometown you can never really leave behind. And that was before I knew it referenced Coffee Eyes.
Oldest Daughter obviously Madelyn Pt 2. Cardinals 2 goes without saying. Interesting those are grouped together.

 

Also Summer Clothes might be the best song of the year.

I think the way he belts out the final lines is perfect and super affecting.

The only time for me that the soft song/aggressive vocals seems like a mismatch here is the bridge to Laura.

 

May still tinker around with this, but I like this flow as an alternative . This go-around, I limited myself to not removing any songs. Like Songs About Death -> Wyatt’s song, since it’s him breaking the lyrical mold he sets for himself in the song before.