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Post by Matt Jones on Mar 28, 2014 10:32:53 GMT -5
Honestly, I pretty much agree with Pitchfork 100%. The songs are great, it has great playing, the band sounds like they're back on track. The production is a HUGE detriment to it though. It sounds like you're listening to it with blankets over the speakers, or from the next room over. I'm not sure we're listening to the same records. To my ears, the guitars on Teeth Dreams sound fucking incredible. The tone on The Only Thing chorus, the huge riffs of Big Cig thru Runner's High, the OWTB solo... just incredible sonic quality. Beats the piss out of the crunchy, processed, digitized guitars all over HiW (exhibit: Soft In The Center). Listen to a track on Teeth Dreams and then listen to a track on Separation Sunday, it feels like a blanket was taken off the mix. On SS the guitars cut, the vocals are clear and up front, the drums are big and roomy, the bass holds the low end, and the keys glue everything together. On Teeth Dreams it's just a big soup.
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Post by dealwiththedealers on Mar 28, 2014 10:43:13 GMT -5
I'm not sure we're listening to the same records. To my ears, the guitars on Teeth Dreams sound fucking incredible. The tone on The Only Thing chorus, the huge riffs of Big Cig thru Runner's High, the OWTB solo... just incredible sonic quality. Beats the piss out of the crunchy, processed, digitized guitars all over HiW (exhibit: Soft In The Center). Listen to a track on Teeth Dreams and then listen to a track on Separation Sunday, it feels like a blanket was taken off the mix. On SS the guitars cut, the vocals are clear and up front, the drums are big and roomy, the bass holds the low end, and the keys glue everything together. On Teeth Dreams it's just a big soup. To each his own. I have drunk the Raskulinecz Kool-Aid, and it tastes fucking great.
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Post by thunderbirdcarpet on Mar 28, 2014 11:15:22 GMT -5
Disagree. Not re HiW, but re Teeth Dreams. The new album is full of really interesting stories. There is an amount of specificity, just not the details of Separation Sunday. It feels more like Stay Positive lyrically than HiW. I'm not at all convinced by the Pitchfork reviewer's arguments, though I understand where he's coming from. The new record's more elliptical on a narrative level, but it's really not the same fuzzy generalized thing that was going on w/r/t HiW. I mean: "Spinners," "Big Cig," "Oaks, "Frighten You" all seem very accomplished pieces of storytelling to me. "The Ambassador" and "Almost Everything," too. Stuff like "On with the Business" has story connections, but is mostly thematically oriented. There's nothing wrong with that, exactly. What is bullshit is stuff like some songs on HiW, where fuzzy descriptors stand in for any real thematic OR narrative content. The new record alternates between the two, but it's never serving up bullshit and is always substantial. No point in trying to replicate Separation Sunday. That kinda shit only happens every once in a while. Though I think it's easily his best work. I'm not all that big a fan of Almost Killed Me, though, w/r/t Finn's lyrics. A lot of that stuff is fun wordplay but kinda meaningless when you boil it down. Finn's fears are legitimate. It's not that I think he would've become a self-parody, but it is true that in rock n' roll, in poetry, in fiction, it's real easy to become a self-parody. The lyric that pisses me off the most on Teeth Dreams is the "when there weren't so much police" line. But that's just a grammar thing. It really should either be "when there wasn't so much police" or "when there weren't so many police." Unless I've just revealed myself to be an absolute imbecile. Not an imbecile! Grammatically it should be either of those, unless he went for the subjunctive "if there weren't so much police", but even then I guess you'd need some sort of noun for police to modify. Presence, maybe? Nerds. I agree completely that the lyrics in TD are a marked improvement over HiW. "Oaks" works really well for me, as do "The Ambassador" and "Almost Everything", though almost everything feels more to me like an extension of the "Clear Heart Full Eyes" lyric style. I really do love it. It just surprises me to hear that so many folks (Craig included) are so enamored with "On With the Business". I dig it musically, but can't help but feel that the "American Sadness" bit is just kind of a lazy way of letting DFW do the heavy lifting, emotionally. And maybe that's because the whole DFW/IJ storyline has been played to death in interviews and reviews. I wonder if I would feel differently about it if no one had made it explicit that he was invoking DFW.
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bigontheinside
Midnight Hauler
If you don't know the words, don't sing along
Posts: 1,478
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Post by bigontheinside on Mar 28, 2014 11:46:06 GMT -5
I'm not sure we're listening to the same records. To my ears, the guitars on Teeth Dreams sound fucking incredible. The tone on The Only Thing chorus, the huge riffs of Big Cig thru Runner's High, the OWTB solo... just incredible sonic quality. Beats the piss out of the crunchy, processed, digitized guitars all over HiW (exhibit: Soft In The Center). Listen to a track on Teeth Dreams and then listen to a track on Separation Sunday, it feels like a blanket was taken off the mix. On SS the guitars cut, the vocals are clear and up front, the drums are big and roomy, the bass holds the low end, and the keys glue everything together. On Teeth Dreams it's just a big soup. A nice big minestrone, perhaps.
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Post by infinitejest on Mar 28, 2014 12:06:49 GMT -5
Not an imbecile! Grammatically it should be either of those, unless he went for the subjunctive "if there weren't so much police", but even then I guess you'd need some sort of noun for police to modify. Presence, maybe? Nerds. I agree completely that the lyrics in TD are a marked improvement over HiW. "Oaks" works really well for me, as do "The Ambassador" and "Almost Everything", though almost everything feels more to me like an extension of the "Clear Heart Full Eyes" lyric style. I really do love it. It just surprises me to hear that so many folks (Craig included) are so enamored with "On With the Business". I dig it musically, but can't help but feel that the "American Sadness" bit is just kind of a lazy way of letting DFW do the heavy lifting, emotionally. And maybe that's because the whole DFW/IJ storyline has been played to death in interviews and reviews. I wonder if I would feel differently about it if no one had made it explicit that he was invoking DFW. Good points, all. I think Craig's use of "American Sadness" is fine. It's not as interesting an intertext (if you'll permit me calling it that) as Opening Night is w/r/t "Slapped Actress," but it's also not as dependent on the source material for illumination and heavy lifting. And to be entirely fair, while I obviously love Infinite Jest and think DFW got at "American Sadness" in ways that few people in literature have, it's not entirely his concept. Excluding earlier literary authors, I remember reading in that DFW bio that he used to listen to sad Springsteen when depressed and that he wore out his Springsteen tapes while writing. DFW also talked once about how Cobain got at the same things he was trying to get at in IJ. So many of Craig's stories and characters fit in the same general field. I would even argue that there's a maybe lighter/less politically charged version of the whole deal in the 80s punk stuff that's such a big deal for THS. You probably would feel different about it is what I'm trying to say, I guess. Craig's been writing about the very same thing since Separation Sunday at least and there's a long tradition of this kind of thing in American literature and songwriting. The difference here is just that he's used that explicit phrase.
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Post by delboydrums on Mar 28, 2014 12:23:48 GMT -5
I'm not sure we're listening to the same records. To my ears, the guitars on Teeth Dreams sound fucking incredible. The tone on The Only Thing chorus, the huge riffs of Big Cig thru Runner's High, the OWTB solo... just incredible sonic quality. Beats the piss out of the crunchy, processed, digitized guitars all over HiW (exhibit: Soft In The Center). Listen to a track on Teeth Dreams and then listen to a track on Separation Sunday, it feels like a blanket was taken off the mix. On SS the guitars cut, the vocals are clear and up front, the drums are big and roomy, the bass holds the low end, and the keys glue everything together. On Teeth Dreams it's just a big soup. I love soup.............
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TKalltheTime
Sniffling Indie Kid
Blotto / Blacked Out / Cracked Out / Caved In
Posts: 194
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Post by TKalltheTime on Mar 28, 2014 12:55:23 GMT -5
I agree 100% with PitchForks review and rating.
About 10-12 full spins in and I am still pretty "mehhhh" on this record as a whole.
As for the vocals why would anyone EVER think it would be a good idea to neuter(with filters) one of the best and most iconic things about this band?!
I too also feel a lot of the lyrics and things seem half baked, not digging the more "general open to interpretation" approach.
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Post by Andy on Mar 28, 2014 13:24:04 GMT -5
YOU'RE WASHED WITH REVERB!Fixed that for you, Brendan. Thanks, Andy. Gotchu, boo.
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Post by delboydrums on Mar 28, 2014 13:26:03 GMT -5
Am I listening to a different record here?
I think it sounds fantastic.
Big guitars, great bass drum sound and to me Craig's voice sounds like the most in-tune / proper singing so far.
Whatever Mr Raskulinecz has done, I like it.
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Post by thunderbirdcarpet on Mar 28, 2014 13:58:08 GMT -5
Good points, all. I think Craig's use of "American Sadness" is fine. It's not as interesting an intertext (if you'll permit me calling it that) as Opening Night is w/r/t "Slapped Actress," but it's also not as dependent on the source material for illumination and heavy lifting. And to be entirely fair, while I obviously love Infinite Jest and think DFW got at "American Sadness" in ways that few people in literature have, it's not entirely his concept. Excluding earlier literary authors, I remember reading in that DFW bio that he used to listen to sad Springsteen when depressed and that he wore out his Springsteen tapes while writing. DFW also talked once about how Cobain got at the same things he was trying to get at in IJ. So many of Craig's stories and characters fit in the same general field. I would even argue that there's a maybe lighter/less politically charged version of the whole deal in the 80s punk stuff that's such a big deal for THS. You probably would feel different about it is what I'm trying to say, I guess. Craig's been writing about the very same thing since Separation Sunday at least and there's a long tradition of this kind of thing in American literature and songwriting. The difference here is just that he's used that explicit phrase. I'm going to think on this for a while and get back with you, because I'm really stoked for this discussion. Alas, my 'Pale King' job pulls me away for now, haha.
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Post by infinitejest on Mar 28, 2014 14:13:17 GMT -5
I'm going to think on this for a while and get back with you, because I'm really stoked for this discussion. Alas, my 'Pale King' job pulls me away for now, haha. Ha. Remember: “actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one.”
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