On first listen, this album rips pretty hard. I was weary after Capricorn but the album goes so many places I didn't expect
Prep-School Gangsters might be my favorite VW song since Hannah Hunt. It’s like a mature take on their early sound. Still not sold on Connect and I really hope it grows on me because otherwise this is a pretty great album.
I feel the same way however I think they had to make that album to get here so I'm grateful it exists.
hoo boy great first listen. it's like a great blend of all 4 albums "Classical" having a very "M79" riff made me believe we'd get a lot of callbacks and I could hear a good amount but they didn't sound distracting. feels very influenced stylistically by mid 90s- Beastie Boys , Beach Boys and jazz baby
We’ll see what time does for it but right now I think it’s impossible for me to ever love another VW quite as much as Modern Vampires, which was one of my favorites of last decade, but this comes closer to that one than I could have imagined and it’s definitely special - it’s immediately my second favorite VW record.
Very excited for this based on everyone’s early reviews. I loved FOTB, but my favorites are still Contra and MVOTC. I was very excited for this, but Capricorn and Gen X Cops tempered my expectations a tad, they felt like well tread ground, but Classical and Mary Boone have both been superior and helped recontextualize the lead singles. I anticipate hearing the record in full will only make those songs grow in my estimation.
I know it's the most straightforward track on the album but Prep-School Gangers is just so utterly perfect to me. Also The Surfer is climbing up there - that guitar is just too good.
This album really evolves the band's sound while retaining everything that is great and unique about them. MVOTC will be hard to dethrone as my fav but this album has a chance at it. These 10 songs are so rich and the album flows wonderfully. Also the piano in some of these tracks sounds very Bioshock Infinite.