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Post by db7even on Apr 30, 2014 20:04:33 GMT
After a week of listening (stream and itunes download) I've finally decided to give my impressions. As an album i think it's great; each track offers something different and the track order seems to flow despite the eclectic sounds. Protection is a great start and a clear indication of where they're heading, then into In the End which although instantly catchy and recognisable i wasn't overly impressed with, but has grown on me with more listens. Refugees next which i think is a stupendously brilliant song where the last 1min30secs are amongst some of the best work that Embrace have ever recorded. I Run is a great song (although slightly below what i hoped after Danny's claims about it - i was, perhaps wrongly, expecting Dry Kids Mark II). Follow You Home is just fun and superb fun at that - perfect track to appeal to people unfamiliar with the band. Quarters - great experimentation in sound and gets better every listen. Have to say i'm not overly impressed with Self-Attack and would have preferred Decades here, but i understand it's a very personal song for Danny and it is his album after all. Devil... not hooked me like many on here, but i do think it's a great tune and finally Thief...absolutely love the music and cacophony of sound at the end - not sure about the vocals on it. Also love DNA. Overall, although i don't like to compare albums, for me it's not quite up there with TGWO and is just pipped by OON. but nonetheless a very good album. For me it just misses a couple of "hits" - songs that grab you by the throat and won't let go e.g. AYGGP, Ashes, Higher Sights, a couple like that on a 12 track album and we'd be pushing. This might be an issue regarding sales as most people buy singles now rather than albums and these big sing-along-choruses built-for-singles are somewhat absent. But i still love it and enjoyed reading everyone else's opinions. Well done lads - top sausage!
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Post by hywelwj on May 1, 2014 6:25:04 GMT
Having heard DNA I'm glad it didn't make the official cut, a bit too 'plodding coldplay' for me.
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Post by paulo on May 1, 2014 10:02:48 GMT
I'm sure we asked for more trumpets.
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Post by retlivdead on May 1, 2014 11:42:56 GMT
Having heard DNA I'm glad it didn't make the official cut, a bit too 'plodding coldplay' for me. I'm wondering where people put DNA in their collection. What I mean is are people just putting it at the end of the album in iTunes? there's no way I'm putting it there because Thief is the perfect way to end the record.
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Post by tomw on May 1, 2014 12:41:28 GMT
It has added itself to the start of the album on my ipod and I haven't bothered to change it - although I think Protection makes a far better opening track!
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Post by hywelwj on May 1, 2014 13:29:48 GMT
Having heard DNA I'm glad it didn't make the official cut, a bit too 'plodding coldplay' for me. I'm wondering where people put DNA in their collection. What I mean is are people just putting it at the end of the album in iTunes? there's no way I'm putting it there because Thief is the perfect way to end the record. The trash bin?
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Post by retlivdead on May 1, 2014 15:01:59 GMT
I'm wondering where people put DNA in their collection. What I mean is are people just putting it at the end of the album in iTunes? there's no way I'm putting it there because Thief is the perfect way to end the record. The trash bin? Haha! I've made it the unofficial third song on the Follow You Home EP.
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Post by joshwood on May 1, 2014 15:09:28 GMT
I'm wondering where people put DNA in their collection. What I mean is are people just putting it at the end of the album in iTunes? there's no way I'm putting it there because Thief is the perfect way to end the record. The trash bin? Shots fired!
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Post by joshwood on May 1, 2014 15:50:34 GMT
Update from me after a full weekend of listening. I really like it. I think its lyrically one of the strongest theyve done, There's no sloppy mush about looking as you are and la de da run of the mill love songs. The "ballads" on here have substance & bite and are much darker than anything theyve done before, maybe thats what's alienating a few people? I also dont agree with the lack of melodies complaint. Im a big melody guy, i like bands to progress and try new stuff but if it doesnt have a melody behind it I wont like it, this album, for me, combines enough progression and experimentation to make it sound interesting but retains the big anthemic oomph Embrace have always had. Follow You Home has more hooks in it than a bait n tackle shop. Self Attack Mechanism for me is one of the strongest tracks theyve done in their career and I cant Adam and Eve people who think its the weakest track (see what i did there?)! Goddamn you all for being different! Its interesting that moving away from the Coldplay lite stuff they've become associated with that they may have alienated some of the fanbase, I hope thats not the case, cos this album to me is what Embrace have always been, theyve just ramped it up to 11. I'm afraid we'll need to agree to disagree here big time. Yep, I wasn't a fan of the uber-soft stuff like LAYA, and even Gravity to an extent, but as has been mentioned in this thread, there just appears to be too much going on without a 'solid' melody. It strikes me as a mess. Whether that is because they have had the songs for so long and have kept adding things, I don't know. Or maybe just the first attempt at self producing (think I'm right in saying) just was too much to deal with.
I find Self Attack Mechanism a God awful track, the worst I've heard them produce. And sadly I don't find the album as Embrace turned up to 11, I find it's Embrace dropped back down to 5. It still sounds like Embrace, but it sounds like Embrace b-sides to me. Again I should say, this is only my opinion.
One thing I do find quite funny is how perceptions of albums change. On the previous incarnation of this forum there was a huge amount of folks saying This New Day was the best album musically and technically Embrace have ever done. Then as time has passed and the band indicate a bit of indifference, the groundswell of opinion seems to be it is the worst they have done and should almost be disregarded. I do wonder, given that the tunes on this album are unlikely to capture the public whether the same fate may follow. It's a fickle old game.
The difference between this album and This New Day, upon first listen, is that this album SOUNDS so great...whether you think the tunes are there or not is another thing entirely. I personally do: At Once is amazing melody all the way through, Quarters and Refugees get bits stuck in my head all the time, In the End is probably one of the best choruses they've ever done, Follow You Home is just pure pop, TDLAHO has a big soaring chorus too. There are songs like Thief and Self Attack Mechanism where the draw isn't the tune itself necessarily, but the sound, especially the last three minutes of Thief, but if you don't enjoy that I don't know what to tell you. When the guitar comes in after the break on SAM, shit man. Or even after the first chorus, after all that bass groove, "so I won't tell a soul because no one'd listen" and that drum kick hits, that's that good shit. Protection isn't the sort of song that's fun or happy to sing, but the chorus has grabbed me and won't let me go and it's super depressing to have that stuck in my head but there it is. It's not the sort of thing they've done in the past but it's still EFFECTIVE, it still WORKS. Same with I Run. They could've treated it much differently and instead they took it in a different, more interesting direction. It does sound like you wanted some simpler, more tuneful stuff, but they've moved past that. We'll always have albums 1, 3, 4 and 5 for that hahaha. As for this stuff, it's not gonna work for everyone but hey. That's music. Honestly though, if you can't hear that this is the best production the band has had throughout its career, or if you don't care...all I know is that this, in many ways is the best the band has sounded. Ever. The problem with TND, in comparison, is that people wanted to love the album because they loved the tunes, which were very much there in a lot of places. But as you play an album like that over and over and the tunes wear out a bit, you can see past the veneer and you realize you can't hear the bass, it's thin here, it's muddy here, it's too fucking loud for no reason. That's not gonna happen with this one. Too much care went into it.
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Post by buckley on May 1, 2014 16:30:37 GMT
I know its had a mixed response, but I have absolutely fallen in love with Dna. Such a shame a lot of people wont hear it. This is pure Embrace. When it kicks in after a minute it gives me goose bumps.
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Post by buckley on May 1, 2014 16:33:40 GMT
Self Attack Mechanism - Instead of "and the bitter tears" all I hear is "and a pair of tits, and a pair of tits, and a pair of tits, and a pair of tits"!
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Post by floody on May 1, 2014 16:36:43 GMT
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Post by nowimnobody on May 1, 2014 17:12:07 GMT
I think most of those are from hardcore fans, so not sure what to make of it, but yeah, mostly positive which is good.
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Post by floody on May 1, 2014 17:29:31 GMT
Self Attack Mechanism - Instead of "and the bitter tears" all I hear is "and a pair of tits, and a pair of tits, and a pair of tits, and a pair of tits"! Also are the lyrics "suck on my boobs" in Quarters - what's going on?
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lenoir
New
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
Posts: 69
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Post by lenoir on May 1, 2014 17:56:09 GMT
good
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Post by macca75 on May 1, 2014 20:18:29 GMT
I'm still feeling my way into it would probably be my thoughts at the moment. I'm liking some of it, but am very indifferent to other parts. I have to say, Self Attack Mechanism - i'm pretty sure that Danny has this song on simply because he's rather pleased with the title, and as such the track means something to him and he's convinced himself (and the band) that it's a good track. I'm not feeling that at all!
Do get the sense that the band have over-thought this record somewhat. Probably as a result of the rushed recordings of the previous album. I'm thinking that maybe they got too close to it, and needed a step back, it just feels a little strained rather than the natural flow of TGWO. That's not to say it's a bad album btw, as already I think overall it is pretty decent. A good solid return, but perhaps not the comeback that I was hoping for (perhaps unrealistically so).
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Post by chrisj on May 1, 2014 20:26:56 GMT
Played Quarters bashing my car windows out on the way home tonight, absolute kick ass track! Felt 21 again :-)
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Post by davidj on May 1, 2014 21:22:37 GMT
After nearly a week of listening is already my favourite Embrace album and I don't think there is a weak track on it. TGWO was a bit of a dissapointment for me after the first two EP's, but don't feel the same about the new album, even after it being talked up so much by the band. I was a bit sceptical on first hearing Refugees, but totally agree with what has previously been said, in that it has really grown on me in the context of listening to the album. The only minor quip for me is that maybe Bullets could have been slotted in somewhere, maybe between Follow you Home and Quarters....
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Lolli
Obsessive
Posts: 243
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Post by Lolli on May 2, 2014 8:08:36 GMT
I think that folk need to stop comparing it to anything and everything that has come before (and yes, I do include the band in that thought) and judge it on its own merits.
It's different.
Get over it.
Me? Any music by anyone that makes me smile inside and out is a beautiful thing. And it does.
End of.
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Post by hayleybailey on May 2, 2014 9:55:53 GMT
I think that folk need to stop comparing it to anything and everything that has come before (and yes, I do include the band in that thought) and judge it on its own merits. It's different. Get over it. Me? Any music by anyone that makes me smile inside and out is a beautiful thing. And it does. End of. This is exactly what I've been saying too Andrea. I would really love to know what people thought of the album as a stand alone piece of work and judged it on it's own merit, without any comparisons. A new fan who falls in love with this album really doesn't care if it's better or worse than TGWO, they just care that they've discovered somethign they can enjoy. Wouldn't it be a boring world if we were all exactly the same people as we were 10 years ago, doing the same things over and over? I love this album, not because it's classic Embrace, not because it's different, just because it's a bloody good album and I love the songs!
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