I finally listened to it!
Holy flaming testicles of a bison. This is god tier.
Went down to a beautiful spot by a lake to have my first listen. Blown away on all accounts. It was really fucking special.
I was worried I had built it up too much in my head but that first listen was utter bliss.
Every song retains so much of what made it great live yet all the little changes and additions elevate them to a new level. There was literally not a single moment that I had any hint of demoitis or anything. Even the Car Keys outro was different but immediately gripping and beautiful.
Slayer sounds EXACTLY as I hoped it would. Perfectly captured with some awesome little additions (the fucking tiny Avey shouts at the start of each chorus - gahh!!).
Car Keys was magnificent. Panda kept some of that nasal snarly thing in his vocals while also making them sound fucking incredible. New outro is stunning.
PJ, SWE and Walker kicked me in the pink bits as always. Fantastic stretch of the album. Only about the 6th time I’ve listened to SWE and that song just gets more and more epic.
Cherokee was a massive highlight. They executed it perfectly. I was never totally sold on a live version so this is exactly what I needed. The climax is truly incredible. Also, cool moment: as the climax started to build I suddenly noticed a massive bee hive right next to me in a tree. I watched the bees with a massive dumb grin on my face as the song built and built in a swirling mass of euphoria. The outro is gorgeous and we should all be gushing over it way more.
Passerby was probably my least favourite live tune and has now risen to live among the gods. Such an intense mood in this one. Feels like the emotional crux of the album. I love the ways they filled out the arrangement here. Adding lots of colour and also increasing the impact of the song emotionally.
We Go Back is fucking joyous! Especially coming right after Passer. They totally nailed the insane vocal layers and whimsical melodic confetti. An absolute wonder, classic AC yet absolutely Skiffsy.
Royal and Desire. You had all built this one up to epic levels and it absolutely delivered. Wonderful and deeply affecting. So much beauty in this song. Like many, even having read it a bunch of times, those harmonies halfway through took me totally by surprise and had my jaw dropped. More massive stupid grinning. Combined with some raining on my face
Skiffs sounds so fucking good. Every track is a wonder. Glad I went down to the lake because this album certainly suits that environment for me. Spacious and sparkling yet full of details to discover. Ebbing and flowing beautifully. Where something like MPP felt more deep sea this really is like floating across the surface.
Also totally see the kitchen sink Music Box thing that dio alluded to. This genuinely feels like the final form of those germinating seeds. So many random percussive sounds in particular. Looking forward to properly discovering them all.
This album means a lot to me. It’s definitely the record/era that has had the biggest impact on me since MPP. So many of the ideas, themes etc are a hard relate for me. And sonically, this first listen has already shown me that the boys have framed it all in a brilliant, glistening package of sonic wonder. Can’t fucking wait to play this another hundred times.
