... And You Will Poll Us By The Trail Of Dead - album poll

Great stuff from whoever doesn't cut their power

Also great stuff in these alternative mixtapes. They have a lot of v good material

a classic arts showcase is v underrated

the lyrics are extremely dumb but "a classic arts showcase" -> "let it dive" is my favorite moment in the tod catalog

That whole album is like that

ah i love the lyrics in ACAS, but yeah that run is great

The only song I'm sometimes unsure about on WA is The Best and even that's pretty great some days

"the best" rules

and yes "the lyrics are extremely dumb" goes for basically any song on worlds apart except for like "caterwaul"

for 'wasted state of mind' alone, i am very tempted to drop a vote on divided.

and the title track ..

the two on my mixtape ^_^

I'm still torn between WA and IX btw - although for a band with such a contentious discography, 'returns to form' etc I find their albums from ST&C onward to be of remarkably consistent quality

i clearly need more albums by this band.
i only have source tags, so divided and lost songs.
but each time i play them i end up realising how awesome they are.

i will not rest until you are in love with tao of the dead imago, stick with it imo

It's my own poll ffs, but the deeper I delve into their discography, the less sure I am of what to vote. Probably still ST&C. And yet, and yet...

Really feel Madonna isn't getting nearly the love it deserves. The obliterating rage, the palpale sense of having been deceived and mislead and dealing with it by scorching the earth, it's here mannnn. Lyrically they've not been that brutally honest, ugly even, before or ever after. Mistakes + Regrets ("If I could make a list / Of my mistakes and regrets / I'd put your name on top / and on every line under it"), Clair de Lune ("What good are promises, if nobody honours them... I DONT KNOW!"), all of Flood of Red, and even the forgiving sounding, melodic Mark David Chapman. They all completely floor me.

and yes "the lyrics are extremely dumb" goes for basically any song on worlds apart except for like "caterwaul"

I find the evolution of their lyrics post-WA to be really interesting, going from the cringeworthy rockist diatribes of that album's title track to the more resigned, yet hopeful (and much more realistic!) "Pure Radio Cosplay" on Tao - the rare rock song that admits the genre is pure, silly dressup and revels in the artifice.

Really feel Madonna isn't getting nearly the love it deserves

I was delighted to hear that Kevin Shields was a fan of "Mistakes and Regrets," or at least its opening.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

forgot all about this band. Tried source tags again. eh.

I picked up Lost Songs again today - damn that opening run of tracks is a rush, has kind of an uptempo-Gish feel

yes! i think ToD got reamed for Worlds Apart because it reminded writers of Mellon Collie. also, Conrad's voice is much higher and drier in the mix on WA than ST&C. from the p4k review: "I hear a gun held up to the head of Conrad Keely-- maybe the world's most terrible singer-- and a masked man telling him to sing pretty or die." He reminded them of Billy Corgan.

it was an extremely tough one but I voted with my Pitchfork

hope IX doesn't get 0 now

I picked up Lost Songs again today - damn that opening run of tracks is a rush, has kind of an uptempo-Gish feel

this post made me hit lost songs today : you are spot on.
its an insane rush.

^^ same! And the comparison rings very true. It's the drums especially bringing that Gish feel.

it was an extremely tough one but I voted with my Pitchfork

― imago, Wednesday, October 26, 2016 10:24 PM

Don't know what this means but it sounds awful tbh :-/

THAT WAS FOR 4.0 MOTHERFUCKERS *clicks vote*

lol

Haha awww yeah :)

ta LBI for setting up this thread as i had put this band aside,
whereas now,
they are back in the 'dont f*cking forget how good they are' playlist.

from revisiting over past few days, biggest takeaway for me is that although i had lost songs pegged as my favourite post-WA already, i think i actually forgot just how good it is. ST&C, WA and lost songs maybe a tier unto themselves for me. also, i think there is some rose tint looking back on the s/t. the half of it i remember is the good half, and half of it is p disposable. half of what, while i am on halves, is still amazing tho.

Worlds Apart deserves it imho. P4K maroons will probably give the 25th anniversary edition of it a 10 or something.

Voted ST&C in the end, but feel so divided. If anything this poll has reminded me to listen to these awesome guys more often.

Xp No prob Mark E, it's exactly how I feel right now!

Voted ST&C in the end, but feel so divided.

i see what you did there.

;)

Voted ST&C in the end, but feel so divided.

i see what you did there.

― mark e, Wednesday, October 26, 2016 4:49 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well those two albums are worlds apart

oof

yes.... IX worlds

^^ nailing ToD's brilliance.

Love Roberto's observation, feeling p much the same way. Those three form some sort of a trilogy in a very strange way.

Xp

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what's the opposite of recency bias lol

as this thread was progressing i had a feeling we might be heading for a loopy result here but ended up being pretty sane. v glad that the love for WA isn't as marginal as i used to think. also v cool that there is an enclave of appreciation for this band here.

sure i have before but anyway, have to share my top TOD trivia, w/. added personal resonance - conrad was born in george eliot hospital in nuneaton.

There's four I could have voted for but went with Centuries in the end. STaC is their most *significant* release so it makes sense that it won I guess.

i didn't contribute to the discussion because i only really know their first 4 albums - loved madonna and ST&C, listened to the self-titled a bit back in the day, and fell off after Worlds Apart. i've given every album since then a chance, with at least one full listen, and...i just don't like where they've gone. i guess i just liked them the most when they were heavy and raw. now, even when they're heavy, it never feels raw. lame but true, i liked trail of dead when they sounded a bit dangerous, and they haven't in a long time imo. i recognize that's unfair and it's not a standard i really hold many other bands to, but there it is.

the one time i saw them was around the ST&C-era, and it was amazing. reece and keely seemed genuinely angry with each other, and every time they switched places as vocalists it felt like were trying to outperform the other. the set started off loud and chaotic and escalated from there. the drum set got demolished and reassembled and demolished again. conrad disappeared underneath the stage for a really long time and emerged with a damaged bass drum head, which he then threw out into the audience. i caught it like a bouquet and took it home with me like it was a collector's item.

LBI otm above about the rage of madonna. the lyrics were perfect for a teenager, and i used to play along to the song on the drums (at the time, a massive double bass set with EIGHT TOMS), waiting for the iconic drum fill which presages each chorus. i have wonderful memories of losing my mind to that song, sweating a bunch and kicking over my own floor tom in my parent's basement like a total weirdo, so i voted for madonna.

That nearly made me tear up Zach, bravo. (hope this is not your oppo dump tbh... Or maybe I do idk ;))

Despite not liking where they "went" (and I get you)' I hope the take away from this poll is they are a unique band in today's rock scene, treading down great and sometimes unforgiving paths, but treading all the same. It's about taking risks ultimately, when it's so much easier to not take them and just follow either the latest trend or succumb to continue to making music of their most loved record, ToD do neither: they are very much on their own path without knowing where it will take them. I admire that.

'Lost Songs' might get you some of that heavy and raw feeling back tbh.

Trying to think of an equivalent to TOD, maybe a British one...I suppose if we're talking a raw, arty rock group with post-rock tendencies, occasionally duff lyrics and a chameleon-like approach to album styles, then Six By Seven aren't a zillion miles away (plus, they started about the same time) But there's a real dearth of good arty rock at the moment. Will keep thinking on it.

TOD much much zanier/proggier than 6x7 ofc

their closest analogue is the smashing pumpkins - prog ambition making them outliers in an indie milieu, the pre-Raphaelite/renaissance aesthetic, conrad's vocals, the moments of self-sabotage

Oh, there's Mew, I guess, kinda

hmm thinking of british equiv of TOD unlikely to end well, prob something like muse

like, i am trying to think of a british band doing the kind of things they do and immediately rolling my eyes

a british band that does shit like borrowing king crimson's drummer to play cambodian percussion