(no subject)
1. Has anyone besides me actually listened to Worlds Apart by ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead?
2. Does anyone besides me care?
In 2005, I said that Trail of Dead wrote an album that was so lousy that it actually turned me off to their 2002 effort, Source Tags and Codes (which I absolutely loved) for a good six months. In retrospect, that was a bit unfair of me; I listened to it too close to reading too many reviews that panned it, and I think I took a few too many of the criticisms to heart. For example, one of the biggest criticisms is that it's an overwrought and bloated piece of rock music, but I think the truth is that the band reaches too many times to write anthems, and they miss big a couple of times. There are too many drawn-out segues, and songs loose a lot of their momentum by dropping into jarring acoustic interludes. But on the whole, it's not a terrible album, and it has some seriously great tracks on it that deserve to be noticed -- "Worlds Apart," "Caterwaul," and "The Best," for instance -- regardless of how "bloated" the rest of the album may be. At the end of the day, I think a big part of the reason some critics hated it as much as they did is that it was loud, clean, and sincere -- something that critics can't stand, because it reminds them too much of commercial radio -- without really listening to the songs or the underlying melodies and evaluating the emotional reactions those evoked.
I think Trail of Dead might have one great album still in them, but they really fucking need a producer who's going to let them sound raw and who isn't going to try to make them into the next big thing. I also think they need to tighten up their albums a little bit. From what I've heard, So Divided does neither of these things, and so I don't expect great things. But I think if it's on par with Worlds Apart, I'll buy it and enjoy it for a while.
EDIT: OK, I forgot about this song -- it's a minute-and-a-half violin + marching band interlude. What the fuck is that shit.
2. Does anyone besides me care?
In 2005, I said that Trail of Dead wrote an album that was so lousy that it actually turned me off to their 2002 effort, Source Tags and Codes (which I absolutely loved) for a good six months. In retrospect, that was a bit unfair of me; I listened to it too close to reading too many reviews that panned it, and I think I took a few too many of the criticisms to heart. For example, one of the biggest criticisms is that it's an overwrought and bloated piece of rock music, but I think the truth is that the band reaches too many times to write anthems, and they miss big a couple of times. There are too many drawn-out segues, and songs loose a lot of their momentum by dropping into jarring acoustic interludes. But on the whole, it's not a terrible album, and it has some seriously great tracks on it that deserve to be noticed -- "Worlds Apart," "Caterwaul," and "The Best," for instance -- regardless of how "bloated" the rest of the album may be. At the end of the day, I think a big part of the reason some critics hated it as much as they did is that it was loud, clean, and sincere -- something that critics can't stand, because it reminds them too much of commercial radio -- without really listening to the songs or the underlying melodies and evaluating the emotional reactions those evoked.
I think Trail of Dead might have one great album still in them, but they really fucking need a producer who's going to let them sound raw and who isn't going to try to make them into the next big thing. I also think they need to tighten up their albums a little bit. From what I've heard, So Divided does neither of these things, and so I don't expect great things. But I think if it's on par with Worlds Apart, I'll buy it and enjoy it for a while.
EDIT: OK, I forgot about this song -- it's a minute-and-a-half violin + marching band interlude. What the fuck is that shit.