The Xcerts Band • Page 6

Yeah, honestly, these first two singles are just baffling. “Gimme” is everything I didn’t want from a The Xcerts song. Truly wish I hadn’t heard it. “Ache” is frustratingly good, but I’m left trying to imagine a bridge and a final chorus or two.

I just don’t understand what they’re going for here - TikTok Rock? Apparently there’s still an even shorter song on the upcoming album too. These songs feel half baked at best, which is hilarious since HOYH came out in 2018. This is coming from someone who thought HOYH was a classic. I’m just lost.

 

The whole HOYH album and subsequent Ep's are just an incredibly strong body of work imo. What an era. Murray has spoken recently about feeling a bit of an identity crisis after it and that rather than carry on in the same vein they really pushed to reinvent themselves. He explained the shorter songs were more to do with ending a song if you feel like you've said everything you need to in it rather than stretch it out. I think it works for Gimme, not so much Ache.

Would really recommend the recent interview with him on Sappenin' Podcast if you want an insight into their mindset for the new record.

 

New song 'Jealousy' is out. My first impressions are I quite like it. Still pretty hesitant about this albums sound. (just me getting a Wheatus vibe about 40-60 second mark ?)

 

I really like the sound, I still don’t love the super short lengths though. I get what they are going for but given it’s been 5 years since HOTYH, I feel like it’s going to be a 20 minute album after a 5 year wait.

 

Song is fun, but like the last one seems like it’s over before it really begins.

I respect that they’re doing something different here, both in sound and song structure, but all the songs they’ve released so far sound like sketches of something bigger, or previews.

 

Yeah, I’m already making peace with the fact that this album easily won’t live up to HOYH for me.

 

New album “Learning How to Live and Let Go” out August 18th. 31 minutes. 12 tracks. Take away current track lengths, there’s an average of 2.5 minute tracks or at least a mix of longer and short tracks.

 

It's cool I guess but I'm preparing to not like this record anything like HOYH. So in that sense I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

I also caught Weezer vibes at one point (Beverley Hills?)

 

You can listen to snippets of all songs on apple music. Lots of slower ones but I really like the vibe

 

How were you able to do this? I just tried on mobile and can only get the singles to play.

 

I'm using apple music on mobile, I don't have the app or an account... so via Chrome and it works on my end!

 

New song Blame is MUCH more like it.

Hopefully a lot more tracks in this vein on the album.

 

It's definitely a step up from the other singles that simply sound unfinished. Still ultra-bummed about this new super streamlined songwriting. Almost every song is under three minutes and the entire album barely spills over a half hour. I wished they let their songs breathe more, not trim non-existent fat.

 

i have to agree with you. I LOVE this band and hope this album helps them explode. However, im worried the old fanbase give it a miss and they dont get the traction of new fans either which could put it in an awkward album cycle. Hopefully im wrong and over analysing the first 4 songs.

 

A few reviews, people seem to like it:

The Xcerts - Learning How To Live And Let Go

The XCERTS - LEARNING HOW TO LIVE AND LET GO | Reviews | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews

https://wallofsoundau.com/2023/08/16/the-xcerts-learning-how-to-live-and-let-go-album-review/

The Xcerts: "We wanted to write songs like we were 14… | Kerrang!

 

I've spun the whole thing a couple of times. Man, this just feels so half baked and scatterbrained. I appreciate the background situation of WHY the band went this direction, but it's torturing me because there's little bits of brilliance all over this yet it's landing sideways for me.

Gimme is, and will always be, terrible. Car Crash Culture is great - but too short. Jealousy and Ache sound halfway finished. I don't understand slotting Drag Me Out and Everything I Cannot Live Without back to back. Lovesick is super fun. Inhale (her) could've been amazing, but it's essentially an interlude. Lust In Translation ends abruptly. The last three songs are great.

If only they fleshed some of these songs out. Sorry about the many thoughts. I'm just lost on this one.

 

i was lucky enough to win tickets to a tiny free show they put on a few months ago - the first of this cycle i believe? it seemed to be populated by hardcore fans, based on the back and forth banter. i'm more of a casual fan myself.

they opened with 'gimme', and my goodness, the silence when the first verse kicked in was deafening. murray actually said 'what the fuck?' because he expected the whole room to sing along with the first line and i actually don't think a single person did. there were also a few instances of them moaning about the reception to the new songs, with a tone of laughing it off.

this anecdote doesn't have much relevance to the full album i guess, and i haven't listened to it yet, but it was quite a clear indicator to me that long term fans might have a hard time getting into this new stuff. we'll see!

 

One spin so far. I mean, I like everything they're doing here (except for GIMME of course), but a lot of it should absolutely have been fleshed out, instead of pandering to the diminishing attention span of the world, or whatever they're thinking.
They're also trying a little hard to emulate the quirkiness of The 1975 (although I love 1975) in a few places (see GIMME, Lovesick, Inhale (Her)).
Also, this is a very weird approach (from the Kerrang interview):

"In fact, the band had been encouraged by the album’s producer, Blood Red Shoes’ Steven Ansell, to do just that. He wanted them to make a record that people weren’t keen on, to say the least.


“He kept saying, ‘I want people to hate this record,’” says Murray. “We didn’t really get what he meant, but he kept saying it. "

 

I've only been able to give it a whirl a handful of times and would say this is probably an apt thought for me too. I have held this band on a pedestal when it comes to album quality continuity. As I've said many times on here, I love this band and I hope they get the recognition they have deserved.

For me though, you grow with a band for years but sometimes you end up in two different places musically and I've a feeling this might be the case with this album for me.

 

I also saw in an interview apparently the band was responding to negative comments but has since deleted them.

 

Yeah I only got into them with Hold on to your Heart, so I can't say much about earlier stuff, but man, that album was soo good. Songs like Daydream, Feels like falling in love, drive me wild, we are gonna live - they manage to pack EVERYTHING I love about music into one song. Can't see that being the case this time around, but I certainly hope they get some success either way.

 

This was a really odd first listen. Really unsure with what they’re doing here - shifts in sound are normal (there’s enough change in between each of their first four records), but this feels just so slapdash and unfinished.

I’ll stick with it, but this doesn’t make much sense as an album to me.

 

Artists that put realistic siren noises in their songs ought to be fined. Hate it.

 

And yeah, bands playing into short attention spans in hopes of getting on playlists is a bummer. Reminds me of The Band Camino’s recent trajectory. So many albums coming out that are barely 30 min long.