[nick]

Bolder might be my favorite after seeing it in person. And because of the auto tune. Avey mashes this weird oozy growl through that auto tune. Fuck.

[destiny]

PRAISE FOR THE UNDERDOG

[jerry wonder]

I like the first part of the song, but the middle and end are just ok--I think they should cut those out. First part stands on its own

[Stanshant]

IP ban request

[destiny]

swat !!!

[Hellomark]

The last part is the best by far ;_; some of the best harmonies they've done since... Uh... ever?

[jerry wonder]

lol

[rohcti]

jerry wonder wrote:

lol

[destiny]

ISNT IT NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[terrestrialjane]

No not now

[samthefireball]

Anyone notice the keyboard melody in part 1 is the same as sigur ros untitled #3 (Samskeyti)?

[hunkswithguns]

DA FEET!

[yoyoyoyoy]

samthefireball wrote:

Anyone notice the keyboard melody in part 1 is the same as sigur ros untitled #3 (Samskeyti)?

Makes me think of the Goonies theme

[thespectrum]

samthefireball wrote:

Anyone notice the keyboard melody in part 1 is the same as sigur ros untitled #3 (Samskeyti)?

oh shit thats what it is. i couldnt place where i had heard it before. interpolation/sample...?

[thespectrum]

i just listened to the music box version for the first time..... i now understand people being upset about the middle section the horns tho!!! wow!

[destiny]

Spoiler: show

oh no, not now...

[foxtrot]

Alright, newest (Blast radio) version: are people on board?

I am so here for it. I feel like everything I loved about it has been turned up and everything that needed some development has been wonderfully developed.

everything I loved turned up:

The intro: gorgeous. Could comfortably go another couple of minutes
Noah’s bass drum hits help the song gather momentum from the start
Dave changing the melody slightly in the chorus part adds variety and sounds great.

everything that needed some development has been wonderfully developed:

The transition into the middle section is so much more EPIC now! building, walking bass notes, drums really building to the climax and those sparkling synths *chefs kiss*
The middle section is FUNKY now. It has this real groove to it. Feels like more of a climax and love the move from funky to jazzy and back throughout it

The 3rd section is even more textural and intense. Drums skittering and spluttering, Brian adding lots of tension, bass hitting hard.




This fucking song. It basically has everything the band have ever done well inside it.

[blindmowing]

it's perfect; overwhelmingly so. i felt overwhelmed listening to it today, realizing this is a band i've been following for 15 years and they're still surprising me, melting me, challenging me... i feel my brain bulging, pressing up to the sides of my cranium, the pressure building inside my head as i listen to this song and try to process what this band means to me, and what they continually do -- which is impress me and transform me on a cellular level.

at their best they always pull me into hyperbole, but it goes without saying this is the best band of all time, and this once again proves it

[foxtrot]

ha! love the hyperbole!

that said, i hope you do actually believe your claims. cause that's where I've been at for the last 15 years too!

great post dude.

i mean, they were the GOAT for 10 years ago and i think i had happily settled into a 'i'll always love their work but nothing will impact me in quite the same way as those 2000s albums again'. then cows on hourglass came along and got close. but this era is next level. easily on a par with their best.

[Tikwid]

What to say about Defeat that hasn't been said already? Devastating and inspiring and comforting - a last hurrah to the promise of the Maryland forest gospel, a retreat into a secret walled garden while flames and disasters are roaring outside, untethered astronauts coming down from the weight of their grand sacrifice and feeling the cold bear down around as they whirl away into an uncertain abyss....

Ok but poetry aside, the thing I've found most interesting about the three versions we've heard is how different the three middle sections are, especially as the first and last sections have only had a few changes over the years. In the Music Box version it's grandiose and portentuous but also joyous, in the 2019 version the harpsichord and flute give it this whimsical ren-fayre quality, and in the 2021 version it's more chilled out, almost accepting. I think the Music Box version's middle section is still my favourite - the way the ascending melody comes in instrumentally backed just by percussion, almost like a representation of the little something you're grabbing onto and taking hold, and then the orchestra and "yeah! yeah!" vocals build up until that amazing symphonic release. But the new buildup in the latest version is just as powerful (enjoy the change etc) and I can't wait to hear what it'll be like properly recorded

[foxtrot]

love your ideas about what the song evokes.

agree on your assessment of the different middle sections too. it definitely seems like that part is the part they are still trying to nail down. is it possible that they'll completely change or remove it in the end i wonder?

[foxtrot]

Had a crack at the lyrics on this most recent version:

1st Section

Verse 1:

Lightning crashed, I got your letter
Look through pin holes, through the garden
I ran, seeking solitude
A dragon statue, in the fountain
Lots of things decaying fast
And eyes wake through healthy roses
Each of them of innocent bloom
Children crying under wagons
Douse the sheets with ladies’ ash
This whole thing will also crash
Strangers laying with the lambs
Drawing signs that look like ghosts they’ll wash away

Chorus 1:

Strap something, take hold
The only things you hold
Stay grounded like the spruce
They’ll change
Just grab something, take hold
The only thing you know
Stay grounded like the spores


Verse 2:

Someday friend, we’ll meet again
Hopefully then the earth is quiet
I’ll lay down with you and then
Loneliness is left in letters
Voices singing other tunes
Did not make the sound of lions
Watches, gems, they’re holding fall
I could catch those loose ones purring
Wash away

Chorus 2:

Strap something, take hold
The only thing to hug
Stay grounded like the spruce
They’ll change
Just grab something, take hold
The only thing you know
Stay grounded like the spores


Middle Section:
There was not a sound in the water where we go when we’re all winding down

3rd section:

Once have a good way
The good way was always being caught
Handled with care, coming of age
The ‘anything would do’
Twist that off and pass around
And then he changed, coming of age

We once had a free line
Opportunity to write home
Top of the game when you’re coming of age
And raised by the underdogs
Hey, that was you and the good dog
What was its name? Coming of age

Just a frightened mother
Looking for some shelter
Just as justice wanders
Looking for some shelter

Once, in a good cage
I had a room and you knew me well
Paint us some rays, coming of age
We were the good news
Now I’m on that bird, how bout you?
Where do we stand? Coming of age

Just a frightened mother
Looking for her daughter
Just as justice wanders
Looking for some shelter
Isn't it now, defeat?
Oh, no, not now.

[blindmowing]

oh wow. those are some potent lyrics. i only caught half of them when listening -- thanks for writing them down... adds a lot of power to the song for me.

i've always thought Defeat was their Lord of the Rings song, but these lyrics evoke a different kind of vibe than that. can't put my finger on it yet, but feels very bucolic 17 or 1800s to me.

---

curious if the transition from the uptempo midsection to the ethereal slower "once have a good way" part has been 'solved' or not. right now it's a very abrupt transition back to that pace...but i wonder if they're still trying to figure out that transition.

[Stan]

Raised by the underdogs is about those early tours with Black Dice

[Stan]

Actually shed a tear thinking that

BD took em under their wing in those early days, showed em how to blaze a trail, then AC came of age and took off into another world. This is their way of saying thanks to our brothers.

We will always love you and we will never forget you.

[Fovrodi]

Defeat single (black dice remix)

[foxtrot]

I think that’s potentially part of it. The whole definitely seems to be about growing up, growing apart, passage of time, maturation, reflection, dealing with those you miss, those who’ve changed, those who are gone, finding some comfort and acceptance in the fact that everything is transient.

[zarya]

I'm half and half on this current iteration. I feel like that middle section has a bit more of a dancing, satisfying bounce in the bass. I also way prefer, I guess, the tonal route dave's voice takes going through those lines. It always gave me goosebumps to hear some satisfying progression within a single word, if y'all know what I mean. But this current version is just, cool? It feels like an explosive payoff instead, with the synth unfolding type arp. And the way things build up to that verse, mwah

[Tikwid]

Stan wrote:

Raised by the underdogs is about those early tours with Black Dice

This is a sweet interpretation but also I imagine "the good dog/what was its name" is like, remembering an actual dog your family owned in your childhood, but for a second being unable to remember what it was called, and that being a moment of realisation about how far you've come from that age of innocence. Sort of like this passage from the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey -

wrote:

...even as he relived these events, he knew that all indeed was well. He was retrogressing down the corridors of time, being drained of knowledge and experience as he swept back toward his childhood...Faster, faster he moved back into forgotten years, and into a simpler world. Faces he had once loved, and had thought lost beyond recall, smiled at him sweetly. He smiled back with fondness, and without pain.

[destiny]

i think the line is "fear of things decaying fast/but i awake to lovely roses"..i concur that one day friend when the earth is quiet lyrics is immediately among the most powerful of their catalog

['Worms']

foxtrot wrote:

Middle Section:
There was not a sound in the water where we go when we’re all winding down

"there was not a sound in the water; the rainbow, the werewolf, look what they found" is what i've heard since the september boots lol......probably not very close but i'm incapable of hearing anything else at this point

[dio]

The power of avey waiting 21 years to use the word "rainbow" in his lyrics . It's time..

['Worms']

rainbow bog dude

[KidEatsKeyboard]

dio wrote:

The power of avey waiting 21 years to use the word "rainbow" in his lyrics . It's time..

drifts rise to the skyyyyyy.... rainbow hats fly down theeeeemmmm...

[BORCHENKO??]

KidEatsKeyboard wrote:

dio wrote:

The power of avey waiting 21 years to use the word "rainbow" in his lyrics . It's time..

drifts rise to the skyyyyyy.... rainbow hats fly down theeeeemmmm...

Tangential to this thread's topic but I firmly believe that Winter Wonderland is easily in the top 5 AC songs, lyrics-wise. Something about the first verse being written from the perspective of a snowman is genius and it's hard to explain why

[roopn]

BORCHENKO?? wrote:

KidEatsKeyboard wrote:

dio wrote:

The power of avey waiting 21 years to use the word "rainbow" in his lyrics . It's time..

drifts rise to the skyyyyyy.... rainbow hats fly down theeeeemmmm...

Tangential to this thread's topic but I firmly believe that Winter Wonderland is easily in the top 5 AC songs, lyrics-wise. Something about the first verse being written from the perspective of a snowman is genius and it's hard to explain why

couldn't agree more, chuck this in the underrated tunes thread

[dio]

Whoops. Rainbow hats, right. Bog tho, idk

[jfw7]

"fly down" ? sounds like another song about peckers

['Worms']

man this song is good

[captainlunatic]

What if they never release a studio version just to troll us