I hadn't even considered it but now that you mention it: I'm sorta having a mild panic attack at the prospect of going in cold and trying to write a PE about this one on a quick turnaround. Two hours, two discs, two distinctly different approaches to an iconoclastic artist's personal vision, 18 songs written over like a six-year period ... eek. No, I think that might kill me?
I knew Austin wasn't doing any advance stuff when he announced the album back in February or whenever the Bandcamp pre-order went live. I got the impression he didn't want any press coverage because he wanted to preserve the integrity of the experience for listeners, and I genuinely appreciate that. (Like he said in that announcement: "NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON WAS ASKED TO REVIEW THIS ALBUM.") We reached out to him to see if he wanted to do an interview and he very politely and respectfully declined, saying, "it’s in line with the concept of the new album to just let the liner notes and record speak for itself."
Anyway, I literally got the album the same day as everybody else, and I actually got it a day later than some of you guys because I couldn't download it till Thursday AM, and it's been a fairly hectic 30 hours or whatever since that point. I'd be doing a disservice to everyone if I tried to rush out a take, especially if I did so without properly immersing myself in the total experience.
Having said all that, I feel like I'm right now reading a pretty great PE in these comments (or some entity bigger than a PE) and it's so much more thorough and thoughtful than anything I could possibly write even if I had months to prepare. I think Lundr would be stoked on this too, and also, I think it's very true to his "concept" for the album. I'm really proud to have this writing on Stereogum, and happy to have all these shared insights and feelings guiding my own experience with the music.
I still haven't given this thing a proper listen (I haven't had two hours of uninterrupted outdoor time in the last couple days), so I can't comment on the music, but man it's cool to read yr take on it Lobster. That goes for everybody here, actually. Your collective stoke is only adding to mine, and your thoughts will enrich my experience. Thanks gang.
I don't wanna sidetrack the Panopticon thread that has semi-hijacked the Wye Oak comments section, but since you brought it up Mike, that At The Gates record is fucking LEGIT. Honestly it kinda raises the stakes of their whole career. It's gotta be the fullest-sounding, hardest, heaviest, death-iest album they ever made -- I kinda feel like Tompa, Adrian Erlandson, and Jonas Stalhamer (who replaced Ander Bjorler) came off the Lurking Fear and were just like "hey what if we did At The Gates this way too?" It's just really vicious and old-school death metal, but it still does all the melodic and stylistic stuff you want from At The Gates. It's such a goddamn beast!
@lobster: That said I totally agree re: "Tamarack's Gold Returns," and it's kinda neat to just be excited about an album in part bc I have NO IDEA what it's gonna sound like (and also bc his last album was the best of his career). Lemme pre-order it now so we can talk about this Friday...
Yeah, I was having this conversation with a writer recently. I'm just gonna copy-and-paste what I wrote there instead of putting it into different words:
I can't imagine I'll ever listen to the folk half but I'm curious to hear what he's doing with atmospheric BM stuff now bc I felt he was really leveling up on Autumn Eternal and that was prob the most trad stuff he's done in a long while. But I hope he doesn't just ditch the melodic structural stuff and just do like a droning post-Burzum-esque thing, bc I feel like that's what a lot of these guys do when they "go back to their roots" or whatever. We shall see...
I dunno man that second half could make for a LONG walk. I'm open to being blown away, of course, but in my experience, metal musicians overrate their abilities as folk musicians.
Nobody has heard the Panopticon. Austin wouldn't send out any advance music. Maybe I'll do a post on it Friday though so we all can talk about it. I literally have no idea what to expect.
@Ghost: See that's a classy move right there. I'm gonna give mjhk75 a mulligan on this one. He's a real good egg who just happens to have the misfortune of being born a Jays fan, and he doesn't appreciate the honor of having his team be the VERY FIRST to surrender Yankee home runs to Giancarlo Stanton. But in 15 years, Stanton's Hall Of Fame induction display will mention mjhk75's team prominently: "Giancarlo Stanton hit two home runs in his debut as a Yankee (against the Toronto Blue Jays)." Power. Pride. Pinstripes. This is how we roll.
Lemay belongs, no question. FWIW I've met Tompa and I can tell you straight-up that dude just radiates love. This Q&A (which I link out to a lot) kinda captures his energy I think:
https://music.avclub.com/at-the-gates-tomas-lindberg-on-why-he-loves-his-north-1798273287
Truthfully, Tompa, Turner, and Scheidt aren't just three of the best singers ever, they are three of the best PEOPLE ever. It's good to celebrate and recognize those kinda metal dudes these days. My love for Scheidt is infinite. Also: Yob's new one is out in June and I'm fucking stoked on that, too.
WTF?! This is also not noted on the lyric sheet. Thank fucking god I didn't build my whole review around that song (which btw is called "Horse To Water" on the final tracklist I THINK). I considered it, too. God I REALLY woulda sounded like a dick. Phew. Good find man!
Nailed it on the first try. NICE! Yeah, so as I recall, the verse reads like this:
I swear I'll give it back tomorrow
But for now, I think that I'll just borrow
All the chords from that song
And the words from the other song I wrote
Yesterday
And I think that's such a dead-on illustration of the creative process, but it works on a bunch of other levels, too, because he's referring back to his own proclivity for borrowing and repurposing, and also, it's working on this meta-level because he's not actually borrowing anything: That's an original verse right there. Unless he borrowed it from someplace else and never gave it back? I get lost in that thing, but on a gut level I GET it because I do exactly that same thing ALL THE TIME in everything I write.
Also, just because he's showing the fuck off for NOBODY, just because he can, he does the same thing here that he does in "Modern Age": ending the first line of the verse with the word "tomorrow" and ending the last line with "yesterday." As a "professional sentence-maker" I rock hard with that kinda writing. So good.
Wait a sec: You have been telling me for SIX YEARS that it's Editor's Choice! This throws off my whole carefully calibrated methodology for quantifying our internal rubric. Huh. U learn something new every day!
@wotie: I pulled that one from the lyric sheet, and like I said, the lyric sheet is full of misdirects, so it could EASILY be "I lost my spine," which tbh is just as good if not better than "I lost what's mine." That's a pretty intense psychological shift right there:
"I lost what's mine" - regret
"I lost my spine" - self-loathing
Good lookin' out, I thought I was done thinking about this thing. I shoulda known better.
I can't believe I'm doing this but I don't have the stream accessible right now... "Pink Ocean" is the one with the real proggy vocal intro that starts off kinda like a Yes tune and then just gets into a real old-school Strokes-adjacent thing? If we're talking about the same song, yes, same, I love that song.
Haha yeah I had literally a whole section here about my fave Jules verse ever, which is in "Electricityscape." I went on for a bit about that. But I had to cut it, sadly, because this piece was running on the semi-longer side. I'm stoked you caught that, tho!
Anything for you, Coke. It has been fixed, and thanks to you, future generations will have no idea that Ian spelled the man's name "Stephen Koop," presumably conflating him with '80s Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Weird!
When I saw you successfully embed the "Hate Myself" img I was like, "Well at least it's not a product issue." But now you tell me it is a product issue. I fucking knew it! Good thing RJ has provided us with a manual workaround. Between you and me, I fucked around with Krillin's Imgur in the CMS, got the same result(s) you guys got, and decided it was best to just deride everyone who tried unsuccessfully to post images in these comments.
NOTE TO SELF: In 19 years, ask Phil to write a "Bob Dylan's 3-CD Sinatra Covers Album Turns 20. Yes Coincidentally The Third Of His Sinatra Covers Albums BUT ALSO A 3-CD Set."
I gotta find an example of the type of Lil Wayne feature I've got in mind, but you'll sometimes hear him turn up on the bridge of rock-pop-type songs doing these really lazy bars, and that's what I hear Julian referencing here, that kind of almost cliched "rapper guest spot on radio rock song." Tbh he might ACTUALLY be referencing Courtney Barnett? Idk, but I definitely wasn't trying to imply he was really rapping with any skill or particular ambition, just working that texture/device into the song. Sorry if I misled ya.
Fun fact: Last time I went to SXSW (2014 iirc) I skipped an entire night of shows that I shoulda been covering for Stereogum to instead see Sharon Needles at a bar across town, I don't even think she was part of the festival? The place was PACKED. Also, her music was so bad and she seemed really pissed off, which was maybe the character but came off petulant to me, esp considering how cool she was on the show. It was a drag (haha) bc she was my first favorite queen and her run on S4 will never be matched. To answer your question: I think I missed my window to cover RPDR for Stereogum when I didn't cover that SXSW set. But I am always here to talk about it.
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