Can we talk about how awesome Parquet Courts are?

Mardi Gras Beads = Range Life. Not my favourite on the record. But as a whole, the record has this cut-up chocolate box selection vibe that kind of reminds me of Check Your Head for some reason

the Wide Awake song grew on me, still find the Dangermouse production useless and off-putting - just adds low end, rounds the bass, softens everything, a slightly weaker version

no doubt this will be fun live

wide awake (the song) has grown on me too

I like all their albums bar "human performance" which was kinda dreary - "Berlin got blurry" is a good track from it though

It was the song that stood out when I first heard it, but then I'm very susceptible to tracks where bands deviate wildly from their usual style, and also lightweight whiteboy new wave funk, so

Wide Awake the song is pretty inoffensive, was never getting the 'worst song ever' vibes as mentioned upthread. The video seemed to be the most annoying element (didn't bother me)

i mean, it's hilarious and tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating and manages to self-consciously out-do LCD Soundsystem at their own game in just a couple of minutes, so for me it's win/win

i can see how people would hate it for those exact reasons but if i wanted to hear more Pavement nostalgia I'd reach for Sparkle Hard

That's the thing -- LCD needs to go away, not get outdone.

i'm not even a big fan of LCD - can take or leave them, but it's a jam and it would fit right into a mix between the Rapture and Lescop

Specifically:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HP04nfUi4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njpw2PVb1c0

also makes for light relief about 3/4s into the album

new album is A+

i think i missed one but this is their best album

their name probably put me off back when it came out, but man, this debut LP is incredible

Are you speaking of Light Up Gold, or American Specialties (their actual debut, but hard to imagine it considered incredible)?

oh, hmmm (checks spotify) — “light up gold/tally”

👍

debut LP indeed a little wonder

"caster of worthless spells" is an amazing alien lanes-era GBV song

listen to the new one

counterpoint: stop at “Light Up Gold”

2ounterpoint: listen to Light Up Gold, Sunbathing Animal, Content Nausea

New one is so much better than Human Performance.

The new album is great and all of their albums are worth listening to.

Light Up/Tally

One disc is all great, one is halfhalf. Trouble being, the 'wrong' one would get random play in the car and would get ej.

The new one, still getting the "Wow who is this? Oh yeah, of course"

I drank right from your tears of plenty and
I exchanged all the gifts you sent me
Dreary beats over fast rapped verses
Leaked through windows in hatchback hearses

The new one is my favorite record of the year, by a pretty wide margin.

its perfect

yeah ok I need to listen to it

The one that finally brought me around to them after several false starts.

#2 ou #3 for me, beaten only by Camp Cope and maybe Graveyard

saw their show recently & it was really fun

Just went back to revisit to Light Up Gold, and I was thinking that I actually like their new album better... that maybe my tastes have matured along with the band.
Then "Stoned and Starving" came on, and I had that "oh, yeah" moment.

Anyway, glad to see Wide Awake getting some love on this thread after a rocky start.

Wow! What are you guys hearing in this record?

I like it but don't love it... yet

Praising its topicality is the easy line, but it's still gnomic in places if that's how you want'em. To my ears it's no better or worse than the others, which means it's damn good except when they mimic DFA bands circa 2002.

yeah otm... but that's part of what bums me out about these guys. I like all of their records but love none of them. They have moments of brilliance spread out over their ... 6 or 7? albums/EPs, but there isn't one that's great all the way through imo. I'd rather have a band that alternates between great/classic records and shit/failed experiments than a consistent lukewarm streak.

See I feel like they've been "bad" before (the failed experiments), but they've never boring like this. This sounds like some band I'd hear and forget. But I also love "LUG," so I'm coming at them differently than you guys, I guess.

the lyrics are good but the topicality isn’t a draw for me

What are you guys hearing in this record?

― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Monday, July 9, 2018 1:52 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

every song has great hooks and the production makes them pop. imo good “punk” production often makes the band sound small, mechanical, cartooney. the basslines! tight econo songwriting. also like their voices a lot especially the more talky guy, tho the shouty guy is p great too

The use of piano is terrific too.

new one is strong the whole way flappy

They are pretty good in what they do, but bring nothing new to the table that you haven't heard before

that’s a boring way to think about music though. the most important new thing to bring to the table, is new good hooks/tunes... universe will never have too many. also this album is p innovative so idg that accusation here ?

I'm not hearing the hooks or tunes! I'll shut up now though

nostormo otm, though I don't mind when it results in songs like Borrowed Time, Everyday It Starts, Vienna II, Ducking & Dodging... but flopson yeah I need to spend more time with it, I've only listened to it while traveling.

morrisp - now I remember Monastic Living, which was definitely a failed experiment but one I admired

freebird II is the shit

maybe this won't sit with most people but when I think of other bands accused of "not bringing much new to the table" (the strokes, interpol, pretty much all of those early 00s rock revival bands), they either had singers or players that stood out, also their influences were so multitudinous that it effectively did create something new. I just don't think AS or AB are strong enough frontmen or songwriters to have outgrown their very obvious influences, often feels like cosplay. Good cosplay, but cosplay nonetheless.

interpol suck ass lol

yeah I'm really into the new one -- haven't heard anything between this and "light up gold" but there's a tenderness to a song like "free bird II" and elsewhere that I didn't think this band had in it. that song in particular is, despite the irony and acid, a really touching take on how you can appreciate and love someone (in this case his mom!) despite your relationship being full of regrets

I know I'm alone in this but Paul Banks is my favorite singer & lyricist ever. but just Bright Lights and Antics. take that as you will

One of them is quite distinctive, vocally