Fiiiiiiine. Y'all got me. I think I do this like once a year now. Southern Air Ocean Avenue Paper Walls Lift a Sail Yellowcard WYTTSY Underdog Lights and Sounds OFTK But, I genuinely love them all. And love the acoustic albums. Sunny out today ... may be an OA kinda afternoon.
I like it! Not a lot of top-tier YC songs for me personally, but I enjoy it as a totally unique entry in their catalog. I bought it on vinyl when it got repressed last year and have spent a lot more time with it since then I had in the 5-10 years before that.
I was never really a huge fan of The Maine before that one. It's still one of my favorite records to come out of this entire genre of music, whatever that means. Just an awesome piece of art. The way the record flows is incredible.
Cool, I was just curious! The majority of YC fans that I know feel the same. I might have a bit more of a personal attachment to it than most - similarly to the way that you've written about Yellowcard songs being attached to your life moments and memories in the past. I have several key memories of my youth just so strongly attached to that record - not necessarily all happy, some of them quite sad, actually. But there's a certain comfort in knowing I can put myself back into those 16 or 17 year old shoes and be back driving around in my first car in my hometown when I put that record on, even today. I appreciate it more as time goes by.
Oh wow I just realized I never did a ranking before Paper Walls LaS Southern Air Ocean Avenue s/t Light & Sounds WYTTSY other two
Paper Walls hit at just the right time for me. I desperately need it on vinyl and ebay is just outrageous.
Lights & Sounds Ocean Avenue When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes Southern Air Paper Walls Yellowcard Lift A Sail One For The Kids
Southern Air Lift A Sail When you’re through Paper Walls Ocean Avenue Self titled Lights and Sounds One for
Southern Air Ocean Avenue Paper Walls WYTTSY Lights and Sounds OFTK Yellowcard Lift a Sail Underdog The gaps between these are all very narrow, though. I'd honestly rank most of them equally for different reasons.
Ocean Avenue Southern Air Paper Walls Lift a Sail Lights and Sounds WYTTSY Yellowcard One For the Kids Underdogs
Paper Walls Southern Air Yellowcard Ocean Avenue Lift a Sail WYTTSY Underdog Lights & Sounds One for the Kids
I uhh, really should listen to more of this band Southern Air is my absolute favorite of the 3 I've spun with Lift a Sail and Ocean Avenue falling right behind.
WYTTSY Lights & Sounds Lift a Sail Southern Air Yellowcard Ocean Avenue Paper Walls One for the Kids Underdog This is how I feel today. I think. Kind of speaks to how good every single album is that the top 4 have all been my #1 at some point
Not totally sure why I never really clicked with that one in the moment. I got super into Ocean Avenue when that album blew up, and then definitely was excited about the follow up (if I recall, they premiered L&S with a MySpace stream) but it didn’t become one of those albums that was super meaningful to me. They got me back with Paper Walls, and then I was super dialed in for the post-hiatus stuff.
I remember Lights and Sounds leaked either the same day or very close to Matchbook Romance’s Voices. I have a distinct memory of checking them out at pretty much the same time. L&S kind of lost me a little and I really enjoyed Voices, so it was easy to kind of set it aside in the moment. I was bummed because I had seen them in late 05 and they had played like 5 songs from it and I really liked them. It was like the title track, Down On My Head, and maybe Rough Landing Holly. I can’t remember now over 17 years later. I’m sure I posted the set on AP.net, so it’s lost to time now. Whatever they played I liked, but the full album didn’t hit me for some reason. Paper Walls did bring me fully back in. And, I also picked it up on vinyl recently and I like it more than I did back in the day. Funny how time and life experience can make art hit differently.
Revisited Lift a Sail last night and good lord that riff in Transmission Home is juicy. @williamryankey Was it the Razor & Tie radio team that suggested One Bedroom be the single? Love the song (that guitar solo!!), but I wonder if something like Make Me So or The Deepest Well would’ve had a better shot at radio?
I wrote a final paper in my college audio engineering class on the production and mix for One Bedroom. Absolutely love that song.
I think it's easier to appreciate the "lesser" records in a band's catalog in retrospect. There are so many artists whose "letdown" records I've fallen in love with over time, divorced from the baggage of the in-the-moment disappointment. Lights & Sounds is absolutely one of them.
I always loved the title track. That hit hard since day one and never changed for me. And yea, I’ve gotten into some older records lately that I kind of set aside years ago. I’ve mostly been just doing discography runs with bands and will listen to everything they have on Spotify. I’ve “rediscovered” a few albums I really vibe with now that I rarely listened to over the years.