[Dusty]

Me Tiger wrote:

The best AC version is when it consists of just three people. Avey, Geo and Deakin.

Yeah that’s actually wild. So is your top 2 releases TTG and Tangerine Reef or is this all based on the Music Box performance

[Me Tiger]

Dusty wrote:

Me Tiger wrote:

The best AC version is when it consists of just three people. Avey, Geo and Deakin.

Yeah that’s actually wild. So is your top 2 releases TTG and Tangerine Reef or is this all based on the Music Box performance

Hey, I was just kidding, cause at some point I started to feel comedy vibes here. Not that the releases you listed are bad, I love Panda a lot!

[DILWeed]

The best AC lineup is Panda and Deak

[dansemanatee]

DILWeed wrote:

The best AC lineup is Panda and Deak

Best anco song is the third one they played at the noah's ark show

[nothingmastered]

Merriweather is a really good playlist of songs, but one of their weakest albums in terms of flow and narrative

[dansemanatee]

I like the way the album flows but I feel like Bluish and Daily could be swapped.

[Stories and Games]

it always kinda bugged me how the second half of merriweather felt comparatively tactile and dry compared to the lush and watery first half, and it was semi-validating to hear avey say in an interview that that was a conscious sequencing decision. part of me does really wish they'd gone for a more even texture, but then the first six songs of MPP are probably the high point of their career for me and i don't know how much i'd really want that tampered with when it comes down to it

[Stories and Games]

the only thing i'd change in a heartbeat is just tossing out guys eyes entirely

[muark]

Stories and Games wrote:

the only thing i'd change in a heartbeat is just tossing out guys eyes entirely

WHAT
I know a lot of people here prefer Song for Ariel but honestly Guys Eyes is my favourite on MPP, it's so good.
My Merriweather take is probably more egregious though:
I could never connect with Bluish or No More Runnin. I know it sounds fucked up but they feel a little to schmaltzy for my liking

[Tropic]

muark wrote:

Stories and Games wrote:

I could never connect with Bluish or No More Runnin. I know it sounds fucked up but they feel a little to schmaltzy for my liking

Incredibly normcore take

[superspookyghost]

Tropic wrote:

muark wrote:

Stories and Games wrote:

I could never connect with Bluish or No More Runnin. I know it sounds fucked up but they feel a little to schmaltzy for my liking

Incredibly normcore take

Bluish (lyric-wise anyway) is like this baffling mix of beautiful lines cut with shit that sounds like something someone would try to bang out as poetry for their highschool girlfriend.

It makes me so crazy though I can't say why!!! Yeah, that line makes me crazy too, but I can actually say why.

But then there are lines like "pulling me into another dream - a lucid dream" and the last two lines about blue eyeshadow that are actually incredible. It's not a BAD song, but the way I've always described it is that a lot of that song is like so over the top saccharine that it becomes almost plastic and empty, sort of like a hallmark gift card. That's just my opinion of course, but in terms of lyrics and heart, always felt like a huge step down from a guy that wrote Purple Bottle, Flesh Canoe, and Essplode, etc etc.

[organic cat]

Taking out Guy's Eyes is crazy, that's one of my favorite tracks. If I had to take out anythjng it's maybe no more runnin'— it's always done the least for me.

[foxtrot]

taking out guys eyes is indeed madness. if anything had to go it'd be bluish

[dansemanatee]

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

[hedgecore]

dansemanatee wrote:

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

Daily Routine for me as well. Although I do get joy out of it imagining a vampire playing the really chaotic keyboard part though (I forget why this picture popped in my head initially)

[Hellomark]

Summertime Clothes all the way. Replace it with From a Beach.

[madameghostly]

tdegenaro wrote:

this thread living up to its name lol

[madameghostly]

for what it's worth i'm on team Poke Out Guys Eyes

[jusswerjk]

You guys are out of your minds. The album doesn't work without Guys Eyes. The entire era doesn't work without Guys Eyes. What are you talking about??

[foxtrot]

agree, guys eyes is among the small group of OG merriweather songs that totally define the era

[Hellomark]

Guys Eyes is maybe a top 10 AC song for me. One of their best vocal arrangements, it feels very exemplary of the whole era.

[muark]

Hellomark wrote:

Guys Eyes is maybe a top 10 AC song for me. One of their best vocal arrangements, it feels very exemplary of the whole era.

Agree wholeheartedly. And in my opinion it’s their most masterful display of tension and release ever. The switchups at 2:30 and 3:05 are just incredible

[coral lord]

guys eyes is an absolute god tier track by the boys. noah's peak as a songwriter and the best vocal arrangement as hellomark said. when those piano chords hit at the end...god damn. nothing captures the MPP era vibe quite like that and its underrated music video.

[dansemanatee]

hedgecore wrote:

dansemanatee wrote:

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

Daily Routine for me as well. Although I do get joy out of it imagining a vampire playing the really chaotic keyboard part though (I forget why this picture popped in my head initially)

suddenly i like this song a lot more now

[dansemanatee]

speaking of guys eyes, theres an untitled song on an early 05 pb boot that i've always wondered whether or not ended up being guys eyes. It's probably kinda obvious but i haven't heard it in awhile. At the very least it has that reversed piano sample that the live versions from 2009 had.

[hedgecore]

dansemanatee wrote:

hedgecore wrote:

dansemanatee wrote:

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

Daily Routine for me as well. Although I do get joy out of it imagining a vampire playing the really chaotic keyboard part though (I forget why this picture popped in my head initially)

suddenly i like this song a lot more now

the Paradiso 2009 show (video of the performance) is when Guy's Eyes really clicked for me. The gaps between the drum breaks being triggered. oof

[superspookyghost]

dansemanatee wrote:

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

"Please don't leave me, things that feel good" is the best singular moment on MPP.

[Fovrodi]

I'm ok having Summertime Clothes as a single only

[dansemanatee]

superspookyghost wrote:

dansemanatee wrote:

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

"Please don't leave me, things that feel good" is the best singular moment on MPP.

so good

[hedgecore]

superspookyghost wrote:

dansemanatee wrote:

this is absolute bananas. daily routine all the way if i had to get rid of one. surprised no one's said lion in a coma, seems like the more obvious choice. glad no one's said it yet tho, that song fucking rips.

"Please don't leave me, things that feel good" is the best singular moment on MPP.

Yeah... this song has an urgency behind it that is pretty unique

[BoomCheese]

nothingmastered wrote:

Merriweather is a really good playlist of songs, but one of their weakest albums in terms of flow and narrative

I disagree regarding flow, or at least cohesion, but I feel this way about SJ. When I first got into AC via YouTube rips, I would always tell people that SJ was my favourite album because it had my fav big hitters like Fireworks, Cuckoo Cuckoo, and Reverend. But then it didn’t hold up to other albums in terms of a cohesive listening experience. This may not be a contrarian take tho

[superspookyghost]

nothingmastered wrote:

Merriweather is a really good playlist of songs, but one of their weakest albums in terms of flow and narrative

I don't even really LIKE MPP but there is pretty strong evidence that they cared a lot about the cohesion and flow of the album. For example, Avey wanted to put Brother Sport first initially, they knew Guys Eyes and Taste had to be back to back because they're linked by two different samples of flute loops, there were rumblings they were going to leave My Girls off during the initial recording, etc etc.

BoomCheese wrote:

I disagree regarding flow, or at least cohesion, but I feel this way about SJ. When I first got into AC via YouTube rips, I would always tell people that SJ was my favourite album because it had my fav big hitters like Fireworks, Cuckoo Cuckoo, and Reverend. But then it didn’t hold up to other albums in terms of a cohesive listening experience. This may not be a contrarian take tho

There's probably a world where Derek and #1 get left off in exchange for Street Flash and Safer, but that takes a dark album into even darker territory. Chores doesn't fit either, but they at least played Chores frequently in the pre-SJ tours, so it's not like it came out of nowhere as an inclusion. WWL has never fit either but it's a great song and also a remnant of the HCTI era.

[hatredcopter]

My contrarian take is that MPP slander - or not even slander, just criticism - or not even criticism! just ambivalence - is a contrarian take. MPP is obviously their best album, obviously one of THE best albums, it’s an unimpeachable work of art, a life-changing and astonishing listen to this day, and pointing out its “flaws” or even just saying “not my cup of tea” is as bonkers as like, going to the Grand Canyon and saying “not deep enough” or “not for me.”

[dansemanatee]

BoomCheese wrote:

nothingmastered wrote:

Merriweather is a really good playlist of songs, but one of their weakest albums in terms of flow and narrative

I disagree regarding flow, or at least cohesion, but I feel this way about SJ. When I first got into AC via YouTube rips, I would always tell people that SJ was my favourite album because it had my fav big hitters like Fireworks, Cuckoo Cuckoo, and Reverend. But then it didn’t hold up to other albums in terms of a cohesive listening experience. This may not be a contrarian take tho

i feel the opposite. sj is probably my favorite anco album, it feels very homey to me and i think a big part of that is the pacing. every song is perfect exactly where it is and it flows so well.

[Stories and Games]

all these nested quotes make it look like i'm the one who doesn't like bluish or no more runnin and i'd just like to clear my name and say that i adore both of those songs

to expound on guys eyes a bit... i think the first half of that song is the one time in the AC discography where the "two separate melodies/lyrics sung simultaneously" trick is done poorly. avey and panda's parts simply do not compliment each other in any way—they're equally busy, equally mid-register, equally loud... it just doesn't add up to anything but an illegible blur. then the mid-song buildup is this really unimaginative mechanical thing where nothing interesting or unexpected happens (the painting with live version seriously improved on this part with the extra vocal melodies and creative drumming, it's the only version of the song i can get into), and then the lyrics are really unignorably dumb in a way that totally kneecaps the Miniature Pop Epic vibe the song is going for. i know it's a seminal MPP track—the band clearly felt it was a very special song considering they played it at every single non-festival 2009 gig—it's just one of the three or so golden era AC tracks where i simply do not feel the magic. i think it's hurt even further by having to share a record with brothersport, which is a wayyyy more successful realization of the "pop snippet 1 -> repetitive buildup -> pop snippet 2" blueprint

[roopn]

hatredcopter wrote:

My contrarian take is that MPP slander - or not even slander, just criticism - or not even criticism! just ambivalence - is a contrarian take. MPP is obviously their best album, obviously one of THE best albums, it’s an unimpeachable work of art, a life-changing and astonishing listen to this day, and pointing out its “flaws” or even just saying “not my cup of tea” is as bonkers as like, going to the Grand Canyon and saying “not deep enough” or “not for me.”

Thank you

[Stories and Games]

i'll balance out my karma here by saying that i think strawberry jam flows the best of any of their records. those tracks are in the exact correct order, and i think that adding safer or any of the water curses tracks would have disrupted the angsty coming-of-age thematic cohesion. even if those tracks are mostly still expressions of anxiety and depression, none of them have anything explicitly to do with aging and childhood the way that every song on SJ does in one way or another. maybe if i was an active fan at the time i would've been disappointed to see safer or street flash relegated to non-album status, but looking at that album/ep/single array on its own terms, i 100% see the vision

[Tropic]

^hard agree. And on balance this is what makes the sky era king. Perfect album, perfect EP, perfect standalone single

[rohcti]

Stories and Games wrote:

to expound on guys eyes a bit... i think the first half of that song is the one time in the AC discography where the "two separate melodies/lyrics sung simultaneously" trick is done poorly. avey and panda's parts simply do not compliment each other in any way—they're equally busy, equally mid-register, equally loud... it just doesn't add up to anything but an illegible blur. then the mid-song buildup is this really unimaginative mechanical thing where nothing interesting or unexpected happens (the painting with live version seriously improved on this part with the extra vocal melodies and creative drumming, it's the only version of the song i can get into), and then the lyrics are really unignorably dumb in a way that totally kneecaps the Miniature Pop Epic vibe the song is going for.

Pretty much how I feel too, as sad as that makes me. Succinctly put

[lhtd]

hatredcopter wrote:

My contrarian take is that MPP slander - or not even slander, just criticism - or not even criticism! just ambivalence - is a contrarian take. MPP is obviously their best album, obviously one of THE best albums, it’s an unimpeachable work of art, a life-changing and astonishing listen to this day, and pointing out its “flaws” or even just saying “not my cup of tea” is as bonkers as like, going to the Grand Canyon and saying “not deep enough” or “not for me.”

we would be friends