This is gonna sounds like a scorching hot take, but I heard Dave Matthews for the first time in years the other week, and I've been playing i,i non stop since it came out, and I can't help but notice certain similarities in the odd vocal phrasing, horns, and rolling drums between the two bands. So I guess Bon Iver is the new DMB?
To be clear:
"Just say to me/What you want from me/Just say to me/What you want from me" = "He's the one/Who likes all our pretty songs/And he likes to sing along/And he likes to shoot his gun."
I hear it - the chorus pretty clearly follows the same vocal rhythm (?) and melody (??)* as "In Bloom"
*I'm not sure if either of those are the right terms, but hopefully you get it.
It’s also worth considering that considering he always seems ambivalent about continuing the project after every new record, so I would say a fairly relaxed victory lap sounding record bodes well for his state of mind about the longevity of the project, which makes me happy.
To me these sound like a bit of a victory lap, both sonically and mood wise, rather than the next step in his evolution. Fairly joyous sounding songs that pull from and reference his whole catalogue. They are certainly enjoyable to listen to but also don’t feel like they’ll have the same kind of staying power of his other releases. But sometimes hitting a solid double is fine!
I'm about halfway through it and I'm finding it fairly disappointing. The main component is these two journalist breaking each song down line by line and their thoughts on what the song means, and means to them, which is by far the least interesting part of a podcast that also includes multiple band members/producers talking about the process of writing/recording the songs.
Omg I’ve somehow never heard this song til now and I’m crying laughing. I’ve watched it 5x in a row. “Me toil part time at jah cold stone creamery” lolololol
Honestly just reading through everyone’s list and checking out bands from people who ranked The Beths highly because that’s definitely my favorite album this year and it doesn’t make sense how many times I’ve listened to it.
I too was confused for a second, but they are all wearing the same thing from their last performance on Corden so I guess they taped two songs the last time they were there (or more! Maybe he'll have them on every couple months and they'll eventually do the whole album on his show) and just broadcast this now.
"Take a band that releases 10 songs on a record. What about the other 30 songs they didn’t release? What about the way those songs changed? What about the outtakes? All that stuff is fascinating, but it doesn’t have a place where it can live. "
This something I've been dying for. Take just The National for a second, they said they recorded like a hundred different versions of Lemonworld, and when Trouble Will Finf Me came out, Matt said they didn't want to release B sides because they were good enough for another album, which never came. Every band must have a ton of stories like this, and I want all of it! Really hope this works.
I thought this was actually a really good and tight performance, though it’s weird seeing the band so fleshed out. Really changes the whole vibe.
I’m about halfway through the album and I don’t hate it. It’s definitely pretty same-same in terms of tempo and I imagine it won’t have as much staying power in my rotation but I’m just relieved it isn’t completely miserable. Whoever said it’s similar to Humbug, I definitely see the throughline in the carnival type sound, but this is missing that album’s heaviness, which worked well there.
Man, this sounds like a huge bummer. AM are one of my favorite bands, I've loved every album they've made and they have another album or two's worth of great B sides as well, so despite their constant change ups, they just seemed like they couldn't do any wrong.
I hate evaluating bands based on their personal appearances and stuff like that, but it really feels like Alex really fell down the hole of this sort of loungey/sleazey persona from the Last Shadow Puppets album cycle and can't seem to separate the soundscape that goes along with it anymore from the Arctic Monkeys. The whole roll out for this album has been so weird, with the band saying that it's basically an Alex Turner solo record that they decided to make as an Arctic Monkeys album. Kind of shocking and sad that after so many years since their last album, they didn't have the material to come up with a more defined Arctic Monkeys sounding album. Hopefully this is just something that Alex felt he had to get out of his system and they come back quickly with something more worthy of the full band, but who knows.
I just finished up my 4th listen. It is so damn good, and over the course of all these listens, I realized that Julien Baker is The Leftovers of music. Completely emotionally devastating, captivating, and beautiful. They both just destroy me.
This is a great article, and clears up a lot regarding the sound of this album vs what we were hearing about. I still remember the band saying they weren't releasing the B-sides from Trouble Will Find Me because they were strong enough for another album and being really excited for a quick follow up. I hope they actually do it this time around.
Wow, that is some goatee. Tracing this bands stylistic evolution has been nearly as fascinating as their musical one, though the former is often less successful than the latter. And yes, a new album is long overdue.
This is pretty good! I like it better than like half the tracks from the last Local Natives album. Just hope Kendrick doesn't sue him for the period thing...
The National are my absolute favorite band, and I think this is a gorgeous song. I'm really happy with everything I've hear so far and can't wait for this album. But, and I don't mean this as a criticism, more an observation, it seems kind of weird to me how much of an effort has been made to build this narrative that the band is going in new directions with their sound, that they aren't going to repeat themselves, etc. and then both of these new songs mostly just sound like great National songs. Sure there are small textural flourishes that are new, but, at least based on these two songs, and the live versions of many others, I just don't get the hype about a "new sound." And again, I'm totally happy with that! There is no band I'd rather listen to than The National. They hold a really special place in my heart. It's just weird. Same with the new Fleet Foxes for the most part.
Oh for sure, knowing Waters' subtle and nuanced approach to this topic, and all of the previous times he's tried to gently engage other artists about it, I'm definitely inclined to believe him here...
Man, what does James Vincent Mcmorrow have to do to get mentioned on this site? He just dropped a great album out of nowhere only 9 months after his last album, which was also great and put together with a lot of the key players on the OVO team. He's doing some really interesting things in the neo-soul, R&B, singer-songwriter space and absolutely deserves more attention.
My favorite, and also one of my favorite National songs period, is Tall Saint. Just shows how at the top of their game the band was when they recorded Boxer.
I've listened to this 5 times in a row and it is making me so happy. I love this band so much. This definitely has a lot of classic National flourishes: driving bass, horns, distinctive piano flourishes, but the small electronic glitches add an interesting texture and the guitar solo is definitely in line with the jammier Dead stuff they've been doing. I was definitely in favor of the idea the band might be better served pushing their sound in a newer direction for this album, and hearing this now, I'm not sure this song really qualifies and yet I 100% don't care. I'm just super excited for this album.
This is sooooo good. So glad to have new FF back in my life. Does anyone know who is drumming for them now? I was never the biggest fan of Tillman's drumming (though obviously he contributed a lot to the harmonies), and I think the drums sound great here, so not unhappy with the change.
I really like Try! and apparently listened to Continuum enough that I remember (and enjoy) some of the songs embedded here. I also always remember being super impressed by the song "Neon." That song is just super impressive technically. But the greatest contribution John Mayer has made to my life is that he used to find unsigned artists on MySpace and promote them, and that's how I discovered Kunek, who went on to be Other Lives, who are one of my absolute favorite bands. So thanks John Mayer!
I agree with both the comments that this is excellent and that the ads are annoying. But what I want to know is what happened to Mike Noyce? It's weird seeing Bon Iver without him. He's been there since the beginning, and grew up in that band.
The live clips of this are absolutely amazing: http://youtu.be/JYdFSBXZSyc. I first saw it when I was going to see Adult Jazz open for him at CMJ and wanted to see who the headliner was and I was really psyched to see him and then mid set of Adult Jazz, all those Ebola reports came out and I was too freaked out waiting around for Moses so I left. And I haven't seen him since and it's a real bummer.
Holy shit. I listened to her album a couple times when it first came out but never really revisited for some reason. Will definitely be remedying that now. Wow.
This sounds more in line with their soundtrack work than their previous albums. I agree they seem to be veering away from those major climax moments that were so common on their previous albums. Obviously still excited for this, but not sure what to expect.
This is pretty good. It reminds me of the first single from their last album in that it's a bit short and static to feel like a great EITS song, but I still like it and am definitely excited for the album
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