I feel like this is just a Sleepwave album they decided to slap the Underoath name on. I generally love the genre but the alt-rock moments on this were terrible, especially in the first half. Some of the melodies are almost buttrock-adjacent. The last 4-5 songs are legitimately good though.
30 Seconds To Mars comes out next Friday as well so this won't even be the worst thing to come out on the same day.
Finished my first listen This is really bad. Like I can kinda see what they were going for I guess, but the songs themselves are bad. Like, for me, they're really really bad. It was tough to get through without putting something else on. I'm really disappointed.
On my third or fourth listen, it definitely gets better with each listen. There's something to like in each song and most of the choruses seem to be really strong , so not sure about the dislike for them. If most of their old fans dislike this album, I really hope they pick up a lot more new ones then.
I honestly think any people unfamiliar with Underoath will enjoy their older stuff that they live play instead of the new stuff. That is if new people are exposed to them live at festivals.
Overall I think this is a great soft reset for Underoath. I think of this as their new TCOS in the sense that they’ve incorporated new pop structures into their sound that they’ll certainly challenge and expand from in future releases. Which, ironically is just about the most Underoath thing they possibly could’ve done.
Listening right now. “It Has to Start Somewhere” bangs. “Rapture” really grew on me. “Wake Me” is super solid, despite being such a departure for Spencer’s singing style in a lot of the parts. Stoked to keep going.
Here I was hoping for a return to the LITSOS days, oh well. Guess I’ll check it out when it hits Spotify.
Just finished. It’ll be a grower for sure, but there was a lot to like. Of course I’m in the “wish there were more breakdowns” camp, but still, pretty damn good record. What I’m thinking is that the changes they made on this one will transition more smoothly into their next release. Not everything worked, but most of it did. Spencer just murdered those vocals, all the way through. Chris’s key/synth contributions were also an obvious standout. I liked every song, but will agree that the chorus on “Bloodlust” was a little weak (the bridge redeems it though), “No Frame” was a little obtuse on first listen but I think I’ll get into it with repeated listens. “Ihateit” was stupid catchy, and “Hold Your Breath” was baller. The fakeout breakdown on “Sink With You” was nice, I felt that. Overall, super solid listen. Gonna revisit several more times today.
Thought about holding out til Friday.. for all of like 5 seconds before I got on my computer and downloaded the leak. The two songs that were released, It Has To Start Somewhere, Hold Your Breath, and No Frame were the standouts first listen. I’ll have to listen to the album some more before I know what I REALLY think of the other songs. I definitely don’t hate anything though.
Haven’t listened yet, but the comments have me nervous. Though it sounds like No Frame is a spiritual successor to Driftwood? If so then it can’t be all mainstream lol
I mean I can see the validity of this, but I do think these songs can appeal to persons in a way past stuff couldnt have
It’s not that Erase Me is a bad album, it’s just that it’s a very poor example of how talented the members are and they can do much better as evident with their last four records.
I really don't get the sleepwave comparisons. Go listen to that and then listen to this, the only unifying element is Spencer's vocals which on this record still sounds different enough. The writing, drumming and overall musicianship is miles above the sleepwave album. Vocal phrasing and writing is also much better. Even the radio rock type sounds on here ( which are the closest sounding to sleepwave) are easily distinguishable from sleepwave.
This is some granular, microscopic fucking nitpicking but...... I wish “It Has to Start Somewhere” had a different title. I’m not a fan of opening track titles like that which don’t really have any relation to the song. They might as well have titled it, “This Is The Opening Track Of The Album”.