Underoath - Erase Me (April 6, 2018) Album • Page 121

I remember LITSOS being a universally loved release, especially after DTGL softened the blow of "We're no longer a straight up screamo band anymore".

 

Good for you! That decision seems like it would make so many small, but still significant stresses go away. I don't own a cell phone so my family gets kind of stressed when we don't have a way of contact, they're the only reason I still have FB.

fen, hope you're well! Yeah lyrics aren't great here and Spencer dialed back some on the quality of his metaphors. I'm thinking of replacing Sink With Me and Wake Me or ihateit with the two Target bonus tracks today, if they end up sounding better off.

 

It's hard to find some good discussion on this when it first came out, but Sputnik has some, and you can see it wasn't exactly universally praised, but it was well received for the most part.

 

I just... don't understand how they thought it was a good idea to not give Aaron AT LEAST one chorus on this album.

 

Sputnik is a dumpster fire for almost any album.

 

do Hold Your Breath and In Motion count? In Motion should at least get half a point or something for that.

 

I find it hilarious that Grant doesn’t like the direction of the album and that Tim apparently recorded both guitars and bass for the album (maybe James wasn’t down either?)

The more I read the more I feel that the direction process was the Spencer & Aaron Show and the other members (minus Chris because he gets to stand out with his keys on this album respectfully) stayed for the sake of the band and the belief that Underoath is bigger than just this one album.

 

Interesting! I remember most of AP loving the album, myself included. I also agree with your Aaron statement. I know he mentioned how he wanted to dial back his vocal presence because of how hard it is to do while drumming, but I don't love Spencers cleans, and Aaron has some pretty abysmal parts on this album. He's the better singer, I wish they'd realize that.

 

I can definitely see this being the case. You have to pick your battles.

 

I'm in the back half of the album and it's as bland as the front half.

 

Just finished listening to the LSS podcast and I'm currently downloading the doc as I type this.

some notable interview moments
-Spencer and Aaron were the first to start writing following the Rebirth tour. The rest of the band wasn't on board until the first Euro tour.
-Spencer, Aaron, Tim, and Chris were the writers and only one present and recording in the studio. If I was Grant or James I would definitely want to be present for something I'm rededicating my life after all this time apart.
-Spencer doesn't care how shitty you think Rapture is
-Chris is doing music stuff 24/7 now. He's everywhere on this record and its one of the best parts about it.
-Spencer mentions that Tim had a song that was like DFTGL pt 2 and it became something different once Spencer and Aaron got involved with it

 

Sounds like they're following the Fall Out Boy model.

 

If it is the case and it turns out the reason James didn’t record as well is due to the direction then Underoath just wasn’t ready as a band to record. If two members are not enthusiastic then fans won’t be either. A band should be a family. Hash it out and find middle ground.

 

I watched the doc and the thing I gathered is that for the most part, Tim has always written the music and they've added to it, but a lot of these songs were written by Aaron and Spencer and those ones see to be the ones I'm not as into.

 

So basically “Underoath is healthier than ever” is actually “Aaron and I were able to make the Underoath album the two us wanted to make”.

 

Hysteriamag's review and analogy touched pretty well on the same point that @Jason Tate made a week or two ago - "It’s a headscratcher, in the same way a well crafted film doesn’t quite leave you once the credits roll."

There are some glaring issues with this album, lyrics being the main culprit. Squire burying Tim's work in favor of the power chords on rhythm guitar is another weird one; there are great riffs of his in literally every song that you can barely hear, even after tinkering EQ settings on quality headphones each spin. However, I can't in good conscience NOT give it a recommendation to friends, as it's already hit 23 plays in my library. Erase Me has this casual relistenability that their older material doesn't - I can't just throw on Disambiguation for kicks. That's a moody, brooding, dark album deserving of a proper headspace.

 

Would have been cool to have them please everyone by dropping two versions of the album lol, the poppier version, and then a version that had Tim's artistic vision and direction.

 

Wake me might not be the greatest display of songwriting, but its pretty dang catchy

 

That's kind of a bummer, but hopefully it will make for a more collaborative effort next time.

I want Chris to release a solo album now.

 

I may be confused, but I thought he said that was James.

 

Feels like there are A LOTTTT of assumptions being thrown out right now and who really knows, I'd like to believe they wouldn't have released this if not everyone was on board. But maybe that really is the case, which would be unfortunate.

 

I just watched the documentary, I really don’t think that was the case.

 

It definitely makes it feel less “Underoath” if not all of Underoath was in on it.

 

Didn’t it state that Grant and James were not part of the writing process, that Spencer & Aaron changed Tim’s song that sounded opposite from what they preferred, and that Grant wasn’t happy with the direction?

 

From what they were saying, it's that those two never wrote anything for UO at all. Just gave opinions.