This is my number one for sure. Could be my favourite TWY record. It's this v Suburbia right now. I think Hum is basically a better version of TGG (which I also like very very much). I keep a playlist of all my favourite songs of the year. And I've just recently ranked them to create a top 100. No limit per artist just whatever feels right. And right now TWY occupy spots 1 through 4 haha. The 100 has a lot of different artists and genres (rock, hip hop, pop, RnB, folk, country, house). Like, I listened to a lot of different stuff this year. I think it was a fantastic year for music (shout out to my clear number 2 aoty Gang of Youths). But Hum just blew the rest away for me.
I think it's probably in my top 20 and I've reached the point where it's overtaken Sister Cities as my favourite album by them. Wyatt's Song and the closer in particular are just fantastic.
Merry Christmas y’all. Santa Claus brought my daughter COVID for Christmas. Luckily she’s doing fine. Just worried bc she started feeling sick as we were with extended family last night. As a result we can’t go to the Soupy show on 12/30. If anyone wants the tickets PM me. $70 via VENMO, which is what I paid.
Last call on tix to Dan’s solo show tomorrow night. Promoter confirmed they are transferable. I paid $70.
I was happily surprised. I thought it was super deserving but didn't know how all the staff felt, especially nowadays without Thomas driving the fandom. I think this is their best record which is saying something because I love all their records and consider Suburbia one of my all time favs. My least favourite track is probably the opener which is just a little too dire for my tastes. I know it introduces the narrative themes but starting the record by saying you maybe wanna die because everything's so fucking dark is... a lot. Good on them (especially Dan) for being unafraid of going there I guess. I do wonder if it turned off any fence sitters - for instance if I wanted to get somebody into the band with this album I'd probably rather just skip to Wyatt's Song, especially if that person wasn't typically into emo/heavy music.
Works for most people it seems, just my personal taste. As I stated, it definitely doesn't ruin the album for me - it's my album of the decade so far. A perfect blend of everything the band does so well, basically Greatest Generation pt 2 but in my view even better song for song.
From memory, The Upsides was 5th in 2010. It was the only record in the top 10 I didn't already own and hadn't heard. Caused me to buy it and fall in love with the band - and in fact to fall back in love with pop punk.
Pretty sure an upperclassman in high school showed me something on Get Stoked On It but I didn’t like it then a year or two later I heard Don’t Let Me Cave In on a warped tour comp (2011?) and that’s what hooked me. Suburbia first, then The Upsides
I claim the weirdest album pattern: TGG -> bits of Suburbia -> NCTH -> rest of Suburbia -> Sister Cities -> Upsides -> Hum and to bring it full circle, I'm now going back and checking out some of the No Sleep stuff
I remember AP.net premiering Local Man, and at first listen I knew TWY were my new favourite band. Then Suburbia opened with Came Out Swinging. By the final 30 seconds of that classic it was game over. What a band.
Something about the guitar's aggressiveness in The Upsides piqued my interest compared to other pop punk bands at the time. Wasn't sold on Soupy's voice but it slowly grew on me, especially after seeing them open for NFG in 2010. Still have my OG "I'm Not Sad Anymore" t-shirt from that night.