Among the best toxic relationship albums, right there with Tallahassee by the Mountain Goats
It's cool to see them refine their sound and songwriting with each release. I do find it to be a light step down from We Have The Facts, but it's clear that their ambitions are growing as they mature into the sound they'd fully realize with Transatlanticism.
A fantastic album with an underlying theme of the plans we make and how life can either affirm or deny them. Some songs keep an air of optimism that those plans will work out, while others portray the collapse of all we expected. It's at once bittersweet and utterly heartbreaking, a true reflection on the hopes we cast to the sky and what results.
Such an underappreciated album. Grapevine Fires in particular may be my overall favorite song from them.
Unfortunately, the highs aren't quite high enough to make up for the heavy lows. Also, Stay Young Go Dancing is completely ruined for me after seeing him perform it while choking back tears in the COVID livestream. It's a shame too, cause I used to love that song and saw it as one of the most pure love songs ever written.
Powerful start, but it ends up falling off HARD after the fifth track aside from El Dorado. Would have made for a fantastic EP.
Good instrumentation, terrible lyrics. Truly the curse of Petrucci-led Dream Theater. Some tracks are passable, but some hit lows we haven't seen since The Astonishing.
Overall, good album for their age. It sounds fresh and lively, like it's full of passion.
I had this at 75, but fuck it. My life is terrible and Cheekface makes me happy, even amidst the corniness. I hope we get 100 more albums
Takes me back to discovering Flatsound in high school. I'm in a very different place than I was then, but this taps right into those emotions. It's at once excruciatingly depressing and astonishingly beautiful. I won't be returning, but that's more about keeping myself in a healthy mental state than anything else.
Edit: my 45 was far too kind. It's just annoying, gross, lazy lyrics over undercooked beats.
Ignore the 5 remixes that Sony forced on here and view it as an EP the way Mike intended. It's some of his best work. Morphine is easily his darkest track and possibly his most soul-bearing as well. That song was the final time Michael was able to break through and connect his personal message to the audience.
The doctors were abusing him, feeding him drugs to numb him into a shell of himself. He was baited into a dependency of opioids, which would eventually kill him. It was his last cry ... read more
A masterpiece. This has soundtracked so many sleepless nights. It feels like a mirage of warmth in a desert of ice.
Terminally online indie geeks not understanding riot grrrl is funny as hell.
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Recent Review Comments
On My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition)
"@Fred2121 @BigSandwiche i'm excited beyond words! much love to both of you. hope you're excited as well :)"
On guyof07's review of The Airborne Toxic Event - Glory
"you'd definitely benefit from checking out their albums All At Once and Hollywood Park if you want songs that can go toe to toe with "Sometime Around Midnight". I'd honestly say i like them more tbh, but that's probably on my nostalgia more than anything"
On yotka's review of Kanye West - BULLY
"@zachsteevo lol no i think i understand bipolar very well considering i'm bipolar myself. go off tho"
On yotka's review of Kanye West - BULLY
"@ffeeer come now, we both know this person doesn't actually care to understand how mental illness works, especially one as severe and ugly as bipolar 1"
On GoatedMorale's review of Nas - Light-Years
"@GoatedMorale yeah, i wanted to glaze this, but it would have been better if they put out the 8 best cuts as a mixtape or something. a lot of these songs feel very underdeveloped."
On DJDoesArt's review of My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition)
"@DJDoesArt I like both mixes for different reasons. It's a similar situation to the Bowie/Iggy mixes of Raw Power. Iggy for blasting and screaming, Bowie for intent listening."
On DJDoesArt's review of My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition)
"@DJDoesArt I know, but it's all good homie :) It's good to always be questioning yourself and your perspective. I saw you do it 3 months ago, which is why I let you cook instead of responding. I'm glad you're enjoying it!"
On redcarmine's review of Counting Crows - Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!
"And thus continues the tradition of people half listening to Counting Crows and missing the brilliance thet is Adam Duritz's songwriting. I can't for a second believe you intently listened to Boxcars and came away thinking, "Yeah, this is the same topics they were tackling on August in the style they played in August." Cause we all remember the driving rock song on August about an impending genocide."
On Scheidhaus's review of Lord Huron - The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
"@DearApparition All this to say it's a very misunderstood and underappreciated album. If I'm gonna be honest, I feel like it's their first two that have become more overrated whereas the more fleshed out, personal, artistically impressive (imo) efforts they had going forward have been greatly underappreciated. That's just me tho!"
On Scheidhaus's review of Lord Huron - The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
"I definitely recommend revisiting Vide Noir. This album is very intentionally a spiritual successor to it. It was a deeply personal album that used metaphors seemed in cosmic horror to discuss the death of his sister, a difficult end to a relationship, and his struggle with drug addiction.
The concept is hard to piece together without the phone line. There was a phone number included in the marketing and on the wrapping to each album. When you called the number, it was an automated directory with a massive path of options/secret codes that would all lead to advertisments/messages that helped you piece together the world hinted at throughout the album."
On David_divaD's review of Lord Huron - The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
"@David_divaD as I said, you do you. You gave your opinion, I gave mine, it's all love. Best wishes to you my dude."
On David_divaD's review of Lord Huron - The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
"@David_divaD it really is a crazy take to call this passionless, but you do you king"
On mnartriam's review of Danny Schmidt - Parables & Primes
"@mnartriam oh no, your review was solid and I didn't think you were being harsh or meant it negatively. I always took that whole verse to mean finding faith/meaning in the world itself rather than turning to God ("Don't ask God, just hollar at the sky cause she'll tell it to you plainly in the clouds that whisper by"). That's just me tho, I like your take too.
And I do recommend a relisten. It's not the most thrilling album, but I find it to be a very pleasant listen with a few more notable teacks (This Too Shall Pass, Happy All the Time, Ghosts, etc). Happy All the Time was my personal favorite upon revisiting this recently."
On mnartriam's review of Danny Schmidt - Parables & Primes
"I don't think it is Christian
"As for health, / Well I never did believe / So I've never prayed myself except for those that pray for me""
On DJDoesArt's review of My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition)
"@DJDoesArt but what about the remaster made it worth losing half the rating?"
On DJDoesArt's review of My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (Deluxe Edition)
"What about the mix turns you off so much to rate the album a 50?"
On KodakEZ's review of Miley Cyrus - Something Beautiful
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On MatchstickMan's review of Avicii - Avicii Forever
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On ezrahh's review of SAILORR - FROM FLORIDA'S FINEST
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On fire21's review of Lil Nas X - DREAMBOY
"Oh cmon, the first verse had some great bars, solid flows, and a stellar delivery. It's just that the song kinda meanders from there so the impact is just lost."
On SnowyFighter's review of The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee
"I heard AJJ referred to as the Mountain Goats for people who failed English and I've never been able to unsee it."
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