Say Anything dropped a surprise album!

[casecandy]

It's called I Don't Think It Is.

Self-deprecating as always:

I know we keep plugging away at the same octave chords
We only know octave chords
A career built on octave chords
Butchered to jilted time
But it’s the frightfully mundane that keeps us alive
So keep on keeping on

I only know octave chords.

YouTube playlist stream here!

I dig it!

[lost in music]

Hard pass.

[casecandy]

I'm more like... fuckin' A

It's a pretty good guitar album. Max Bemis is like my guitar hero, basically. I really like listening to what he's doing... despite the self-deprecation, he's a really unique player.

[foomanfat]

I can't figure out if I like this album, or just dislike it less than Anarchy and Hebrews.
I really dislike how it's mixed. I wish the guitars were brought forward in the mix. I hate the lofi processing on the vocals.
I think it'll be better live.

[neonblack]

I did like that first song. I haven't gotten through the rest

I still bust out ...is a real boy from time to time. He needs to make a whole album that sounds like An Orgy of Critics.

[casecandy]

Me too.

Problems with this album:

1. It's really not a Say Anything album. Conor Oberst had the balls to drop his Bright Eyes moniker and just be Conor Oberst. Time for Max Bemis to just be Max Bemis.
2. My first thought was that the vocals were recorded in Garageband. Why the fucking reverb? Gross.
3. Mix is total slop. So much fuzz buried under so much reverb. To answer your question, I think Max wanted the drums to shine through. Darren from MUTEMATH did all the drumming on this album so Max was really smitten with that and it's regrettable.
4. Conscious efforts to emulate Kanye West on several songs are very transparent (in no small part because he actually said that he trying to emulate Kanye, who he briefly worked with on this album).

Sum total: crap production plus conspicuous hero worship plus it not "feeling" like Say Anything = is it a great album? I DON'T THINK IT IS.

But it is good and several songs are pretty awesome despite all that ("Goshua" and "Attaboy" for me)

P.S. I liked Hebrews better

P.P.S. I recently got to have drinks and convo w/ the producer of IARB, Stephen Trask, and he gave me some serious insight into that album. I was pretty starstruck about the whole affair because I grew up on Hedwig and the Angry Inch

[SPACERITUAL]

Man this band is garbage. It sounds exactly like i imagine a band would if it were made entirely of the 40 year old busboys you always see at chiles with black nail paint and those checkerboard belts with the cadillac seatbelt closure buckle. Good to see you're still being consistent.

[casecandy]

That is definitely the worst song on the album.

They're way past their peak, Space, I'm just a diehard. Is A Real Boy (2004) is an unimpeachable masterpiece. Most people stopped listening after In Defense Of The Genre (2007).

Though I'm really glad you're actually fucking arguing with me about something!

[odontophobia]

That is definitely the worst song on the album.

They're way past their peak, Space, I'm just a diehard. Is A Real Boy (2004) is an unimpeachable masterpiece. Most people stopped listening after In Defense Of The Genre (2007).

Though I'm really glad you're actually fucking arguing with me about something!

I'm def. not trying to D.o.S. you here but you're so triumphantly enthusiastic about things that it makes it really hard to value your opinions at all. We definitely have some overlap but your unbridled obsession with declaring so many things "masterpieces" is just watering things down. I don't want to believe anything you say because it's an "unimpeachable masterpiece."

Rather than throwing around these lofty phrases why not just explain what it is about that record that you really like instead of putting everything on a pedestal and, while you're at it, drop the idol worship of people who write great songs but aren't otherwise deserving of the virtuoso title you seem to give them.

You have plenty of musical overlap with people here but sometimes the way you talk about the things you really like comes on so strong that I just blow it off. You're the boy who cried wolf with music, dude. Everything is so fucking great that I cannot possibly believe that anything is great when you're posting about it.



And I'm not trying to harsh your mellow or anything. This isn't an attack. You just need to start describing what it is you like about these bands/albums/whatever without some of your usual "flair."

If you want to talk about how "Worship and Tribute" is better than "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence" then you need to say something other than, "Worship and Tribute is better because it's a masterpiece."

Maybe you like it because it's not filled with "you fucking whore" and is more "groove laden."

[neonblack]

But Coloring Book and My Color Green trump both of them.

[SPACERITUAL]

Honestly that criticism of CC is bullshit. Racism aside, he usually provides thoughtful critique of various facets of the actual music he is discussing, albeit backed up by mindless devotion to rightfully dead genres and rampant fanboyism.

While im at it i really dont see the rest of you redefining music journalism. so maybe just shut the fuck up.

[neonblack]

What? Are you for real?

[Uncle Grandfather]

[odontophobia]

Honestly that criticism of CC is bullshit. Racism aside, he usually provides thoughtful critique of various facets of the actual music he is discussing, albeit backed up by mindless devotion to rightfully dead genres and rampant fanboyism.

While im at it i really dont see the rest of you redefining music journalism. so maybe just shut the fuck up.

yeah, it's kind of hard to find his opinions when they're buried by 5 posts of him loving something.
you're probably right, i'm sure he has some good critique in there (he certainly does make a nice bullet point list in this thread). maybe it's the 'rampant fanboyism' that has me in a tizzy.

sorry I haven't redefined music journalism though. better luck next time, I guess.

[SPACERITUAL]

Srs though I want you guys to know that I'm on the road so I'm doing slot of blow and smoking a shitton of meth so if I say something offcolor it's because you're being boring and I'm lit as FUCK SON