A Thread For School of Seven Bells Love!

It's quite handy that this thread is at the top of the page, because I've finally got around to listening to the album today. I listened to it several times all the way through this morning, and yeah, I love this a hell of a lot. Even 'Lafaye', which I wasn't too taken with at first, has now got its claws in me. I can see this becoming a favourite of the year, and as much as I liked the Chairlift record, this quite comfortably runs rings around it as far as I'm concerned.

as much as I liked the Chairlift record, this quite comfortably runs rings around it as far as I'm concerned

If you're looking for a thing from SVIIB that SVIIB is best at, you're not going to find it in Chairlift (and vice versa). They're not exactly apples and oranges, but very different to my mind.

Apples and oranges, yes, but I get the feel that Benjamin Curtis knows what he wants better than Patrick Wimberly. Caroline Polachek and Alejandra Deheza definitely belong in different horticulture sections.

on the first couple listens this one seems a bit flat to me, but i need more time i guess.

If you're looking for a thing from SVIIB that SVIIB is best at, you're not going to find it in Chairlift (and vice versa). They're not exactly apples and oranges, but very different to my mind.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 5:24 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, absolutely. I completely agree with you, and it wasn't what I was getting at in the slightest. Rather, the Chairlift record was the first record of 2012 that I enjoyed and played the hell out of, and I'm finding myself preferring this much more.

"scavenger" and "white wind" are astonishing

the lyrics to "scavenger" are a lot more...specific and vicious than i expected from SVIIB!

― lex pretend, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 9:30 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'White Wind' is one of my favourites on the album, definitely. I also find 'Reappear' incredibly beautiful.

on the first couple listens this one seems a bit flat to me, but i need more time i guess.

same here. decent and pleasant enough, couple really strong tunes, but Disconnect and Alpinisms were both top 5 records of their respective years for me, and i cant really see this doing the same. seems a bit SVIIB-by-numbers. and the changes they HAVE made (bit more Secret Machines-y bass throb, less gazey/hazy guitars, fewer overlapped-to-the-heavens vocal harmonies) aren't really to my liking as much as, say, "connjur" or "my cabal" or "iamundernodisguise" or the more stunning songs from Disconnect. "white wind" is really really good though, that's an early favorite for sure.

yeah I am missing the overlapped-to-the-heavens vocal harmonies a bit; I was thinking about that earlier today. I really hope they've got someone else singing with them when they tour.

!!!!!

"Low Times"!!

!!!!!

The thick-range steeliness of the sound oddly puts me in mind of parts of the second Garbage album - perfectly constructed walls of sound etc.

they were super great live last night

just total command of a space, sonically

Was it just two of them?

My god, I love the harmonies on that final track.

Was it just two of them?

filled out with a drummer and a keyboardist/backing vocalist, both great, drummer especially great i thought

P R E D A T O R

I FINALLY HAVE THIS!!! (sorry, I've been avoiding the thread because I didn't want to have my impressions spoiled)

3 songs in, and it's Album of the Year for me. I mean, I knew it was going to be, but I just wanted to check.

It's just... how can just one band take *everything* I love, and smoosh it into one glorious and amazing mixture. Mid 80s New Order (I think they thought it wasn't obvious enough on the last album, so they had to ramp it up to 11 on this album) and Pornography era Cure and big My Bloody Valentine guitars and the swirling harmonies, and just... YES.

OK, the harmonies aren't as baroque as the last 2 albums, which is an obvious loss, and makes me a bit sad.

Who else expected the drum break on Low Times to go Dut Dut Dut Dut Dut Dut Dut DUTDUTDUTDUTDUTDUTDUTDUT - come on you guys, missed a trick.

GOD I LOVE THIS BAND SO MUCH.

I like it a lot after an underwhelming first listen.

"When You Sing" is an epic closer.

Has Kevin Shields ever sued anybody for copyright infringement?

But they do SO MUCH MORE than just straight MBV copyright infringement, they take that sound and meld it with so many other things that it becomes one more element in the mix, rather than a straight up rip. I mean, if Shieldsy was gonna sue anyone, Ringo Deathstar would be far more at the top of his summons list.

Excellent WCC.

I was going to refer to "Shieldsy" too but i bottled it.

I played a sus 2 instead

Love to you all

Yeah SVIIB is increasingly and deservedly its own beast album for album. The touchstones are inevitable, the synthesis and extrapolation was not.

The last time I saw him, he commandeered my table and spilled wine all over me. I can call him Shieldsy if I like! :-P

I mean, if Shieldsy was gonna sue anyone, Ringo Deathstar would be far more at the top of his summons list.

Otm but I mean you cannot deny how much of a straight rip "When You Sing" is

3 songs in and this is soooo much better than the last one

Technically, it'd be copyright infringement of the Weatherall remix of My Bloody Valentine, so you'd have a hard time proving anything! And considering that remix is one of my favourite things OF. ALL. TIME. I'm just happy that it exists.

I am really digging this, although it feels like the album doesn't really shift into gear until "Low Times"

(my main complains-v-much-in-character comment is "plz use more syncopation")

xp to Kate yeah, I feel p much the same. Like, it's shamelessly blatant and yet I dont give one single rat's ass--it's just heavenly

Can you pls not use my government name? Thanks.

ack shit sorry, will (not) do

i love that this is a co-release by Vagrant and Ghostly.

its like my teens and my twenties collaborating to make me happy in my thirties

^^^ otm, I had to laugh when I saw both logos on the back

Actually, having compared these two, I think that When You Sing is more like the original than the Weatherall remix, but i love them both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFAMyngGlw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LseSx_hPJyQ

Christ that was so amazing live. Especially the bits where Benjamin whipped out the hollowbody bass to play the Peter Hooky bits on the new material. Words cannot... just, wow. They're so HUGE sounding live. I was skeptical about live drums, but it's totally kicked it up another level and somehow made it even more dancey?

Also LOL at the Knife's support set.

incredible show, my ears are still ringing. didn't feel the lack of the third member - certainly didn't stop them sounding even more expansive and BIGGER.

i thought, compared to the last time i saw them, that the guitars were more dominant in the mix to the vocals; but while the voice wasn't as prominent, alejandra's personality was way more in the spotlight. felt a couple of times she was still unsure of what to do as ~the frontwoman~ but it was almost as though, instead of being layers of sound, she was conveying her songs more sharply. this was only a subtle thing i felt, though.

CANNOT WAIT UNTIL SHOW HERE IN APRIL

What he said.

My right ear is chiming like a bell, I blame that last encore of Sempiternal.

They've always had more guitars than vocals! they're a shoegaze band, after all! I think it's just the last venue was so tiny that it couldn't handle the power of Benjamin's pedalboard. It definitely felt *bigger* than many times I've seen them, but that was the live drums, I'm sure.

Extra keyboardist/vocalist did fill up a lot of the space, but I'm still going to do a *sniff* over missing Claudia because she was always so lovely (and she would always say hi to me.)

They are just my favourite fucken band in the world, that are still existent. They just take little bits of EVERYTHING I LIKE and mix it all together in the most WCC-friendly fashion.

Radiowho?

P R E D A T O R

the endings to "white wind" and "low times", so sudden they left me gasping

P! R! E! D! A! T! O! R! That! is! What! You! Are!

Man, I did not want to cross Alley by the end of that song.

Listening to Low Times now, and just remembering how MASSIVE that burbling synth breakdown into the ending sounded. (Also how it sounded like Forest Families by The Knife crossed with New Order.)

Holy shit, they're playing Amsterdam next sunday! Must re-organize my agenda...

Also LOL at the Knife's support set.

(ugh sorry 'bout "their"...)

No, that was a joke. There was no support band, but someone stuck on Silent Shout on random while SVIIB set up their keyboards, so we were joking "oh, hey, it's like a Knife support act but without the masks."

If you can in any way see them, this tour, do so. They are sounding SO HUGE.

Ah, I was a little bit afraid of it being an injoke after I posted my exlamation mark larded post.. :-)

Will definitely try to go!

I've been a bit obsessed with 'When You Sing' for the last couple of days, possibly the best pastiche of that sound I've heard.

Katy Perry twitter promotion

lol:
http://i.imgur.com/a8B38.png

I've been trying to figure out which, exactly, song it is that When You Sing rips off pays homage to. And it's such a weird thing because, although it does manage to sound like it's totally Soon, it's about 3 or 4 different MBV songs all mixed together, with bits and pieces of elements taken from many different songs.

It just does that sound SO WELL. And it manages to capture the bits of that sound that I really really liked, the density, the interlockingness, the dancefloor dynamics of it, rather than just being a copycat of a specific MBV song, it's like they've completely captured the entire aesthetic on a conceptual level. It's not even that magpie thing we were discussing with Radiohead, where they try to do something, do it wrong, and then end up with something brilliant by accident. It's like SVIIB took MBV's entire aesthetic and almost managed to go one level up, and do something even better with it.

I think of Saint Etienne when I hear "When You Sing"