Does anyone have a list of every song Tom has deemed a 10 (including songs that are not just #1s but that he has mentioned were 10s either in "The 10s" section of just off-hand?)
I have actually been obsessed with everything she's done so far and eagerly anticipating this. But I am a bit bummed I don't love it. Sounds more like an eventual grower of a deep cut, but maybe I will hear more in it after a few listens.
I also find the bong ripping video a bit high school to be honest, not that I'm against weed it's just that it seems a little "look at me I smoke weed" but it's all good.
On a positive note, even though I'm not in love with this lead single I am still really anticipating this new album and hoping it will be a level up from Stranger in the Alps (which I already find pretty much perfect).
I am really liking this album and think it’s very close to a masterpiece, BUT...I just think it would benefit from losing a few tracks and being a bit tighter. The record has mostly the same tempo and feel, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a record to have but which does go down easier in 50 minutes than it does in 70. I’m not even sure which tracks I’d take out (they’re all good - but probably one or two from the middle, and then maybe “Bartender” and/or “Happiness is a Butterfly”).
And had, to be concise with it, what sounds like a toxic relationship where he may have been pushy (or something), like no one in their early stages in life has ever had a relationship where maybe they made some mistakes or whatever. And besides having sex with groupies he thought about having sexual relations with women in his audience - because men (and women) should never just be purely sexually attracted to another person. Or they shouldn’t use their immense “power” as a member of a band that really relatively no one had ever heard of to have to have sex with consenting adult women.
He was basically forced to cancel himself and air out all this because he was being threatened and I think probably truly was convinced that these actions were terrible.
I get upset about this because I thought Pinegrove had the possibility to be one of the best and biggest indie bands out there and our overreactive cancel culture pretty much doesn’t give a shit now. Skylight was great and no one noticed it.
And by the way I’m not trying to denigrate the #Metoo movement which I believe is important - abusers like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby deserve punishment and women deserve to be heard. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any nuance with it, and yeah, it still doesn’t sound like Evan did anything truly awful to deserve to have his career blow up.
Also, that being said I do think it’s weird that so many fans can disavow artists they once loved after one record that didn’t click for them. I’m still a Big Mac (ha it autocorrected to capitalize the B) fan and look forward to what he does next, just as I look forward to whatever Arcafe Fire does or whomever else has released one record that didn’t do it for me!
I loved 2 and Salad Days and thought that This Old Dog was a really great record as well, though not on par with the other two. But this new stuff is honestly just boring to me. I’ve only done one listen to the album but it just felt so slow and not melodic enough or beautiful enough to justify it.
I think this is a ridiculous take. This is far more experimental than their first record. There's DEFINITELY some safe songs on here that everyone could like, but it's a bit all over the place as a full listen for a lot of people. And in terms of those safe songs, again, it's not like there weren't safe songs before. AND ALSO, just because a band moves to a major doesn't meant they now make purposeful "sell out" music or change their sound. This isn't 1991.
This album definitely feels like it will take quite a few listens for me to actually come up with an opinion on. I could see it coming across as a masterpiece after multiple listens or being too sloppy and long. But I don’t know which one yet! Seems like it wi take at least a few days to sort out (this usually winds up being a good thing - deeper rewards than something that’s immediate but than forgettable - but then again, we’ll see!)
I think not liking the production on something is a legitimate reason to throw something in the “not for me” camp. But I also think it’s inoortant to keep an open mind and look past superficialities.
I like the “Realiti” demo much better than the version on Art Angels, though maybe it’s because the demo sounds much more like Visions-era Grimes, and I much prefer the sound and feel of Visions to where she’s gone from there.
I honestly hated all four songs when I first heard them, and I'm a HUGE fan of the last three records (I consider all three classics) and was bracing for major disappointment, but listening to them a few times through, all four together, they've grown on me quite a bit. It has me wondering if this record will be their "White Album" because together these make up such a listenable little hodgepodge of music, but by themselves the songs don't feel as strong (the one I'm still not really feeling is "Harmony Hall", which strikes me as the best "single" so far, but I just get irritated over the re-use of the "I don't want to live like this, and I don't want to die" line lifted from "Finger Back") and there are so many songs and so many of them seem like short, but very pleasurable, sketches, a la "Honey Pie" (hope I used "a la" right).
I was a huge fan between Slim Shady LP and Encore era. I seriously thought Encore was going to be a masterpiece, since for me (at the time at least) I thought he was improving with each album and reached his apex with 8 Mile. His guest spots and Ja Rule diss tracks before Encore were also incredible. But then Encore dropped and...well, it’s last on this list for a reason. But I spent a lot of time listening to it, trying to convince myself it was actually brilliant. It’s easily the “bad” record I’ve listened to the most. Which brings me to my question: what is the “bad” record you’ve listened to the most and why?
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