thread of best rock album of year 2017, 'a black mile to the surface' by manchester orchestra

just wanted to alert ppl who like this album to the bad books (collaboration between andy hull and kevin devine) record that's coming out soon, and also to this gorgeous new song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxc14_TnT50

the other new songs have been cool too

the bad books album is INCREDIBLE

lol I mentioned it again on the emo thread. it's very good. the penultimate track is especially gorgeous.

it's the first bad books record on which their songwriting voices feel really united imo. i was a little wary of the whole album being acoustic guitar-based but the arrangements are all such slow gorgeous aches it's hard to complain. also this is a lyrical peak for both of them

I agree with all that. "Army" does lay it on a bit thick but it feels more or less earned by then

"army" has absolutely ruined my life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63uaPVN0sGA

full album performance

and it appears they're dropping a single or something on 02/18

oh i just came here to post that live video!!!

I'm guessing from this that catherine marks will be handling their new stuff as well? a very good thing

The Million Masks of God out 04/30, single's real good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-voZou1JllY

fucking fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6YUHe3ArHQ

Hull worked on the new Foxing record, right? there's some convergence going on. not complaining

these new songs...I know we say this all the time but these guys should be huge

you know what song stopped me dead in my tracks the other day, was "you wouldn't have to ask" by bad books

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-KcNBY83CI

anyway I am still unbelievably stoked for this album

god "you wouldn't have to ask" is the best fucking song ever written

that great

has anyone tried mixing "keel timing" and "bed head" into one song? because I do this in my head all the time

surprising no one, i discovered today that i've been really underrating simple math since it came out

my second fave after black mile now

MA at their most MOR? not that I'm complaining. I get pearl jam vibes on occasion

I pretend it starts with "pensacola" tbh, first songs feel like a throat clearing to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R4gSeY0XtY

very black mile, gorgeous song

it's out there

holy cow "inaudible" sounds incredible

heard a new song on the radio, was really good

oh wow the second half is A Moon Shaped Pool-core emo, here for this

or at least that's how "dinosaur" struck me

this is the best album ever

Lol.

Is it out tomorrow then?

'tis

surprising no one, i discovered today that i've been really underrating simple math since it came out

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson)

Brad, the first time I listened to Simple Math, I cried. Great album, great title track, great music video.

Man, I'm so glad that I've (finally) Got Friends that like Manchester Orchestra. Andy Hull is one of my favorite musicians alive, and I really love how distinct his voice is. Then again, I also love Coheed and Cambria and many people find Claudio difficult to listen to.

And I'm so behind that I didn't realize that he had a side project with freakin' Kevin Devine.

this album is so rad. i a/b’d it with black mile today, i think black mile is so close to a platonically perfect album from these guys for me that it’s hard to measure up, like... “the moth” and “lead, sd” are like these rocking engines of dread and i’m still totally blown away by them. and “the grocery” and “the mistake” are the two best manchester orchestra songs of all time

but this album comes really fucking close. my favorite is “obstacle” and i cannot believe they managed to hit this balance between inward acoustic guitar stuff and full prog bridges but that’s what really impresses me about “dinosaur” and “obstacle”

Cope/Hope -> Black Mile felt like a seismic shift to me, just a huge shift in scale and level of execution. this otoh feels more like Black Mile II than I was expecting, and not just because of the little reprises. andy is such a confident singer now that, ironically, it leads me to pay more attention to the lyrics, and his constant first-person passionate stadium yearning feels like it has sacrificed a bit of specificity. but it's v v good and the songs you cite show some real growth. otoh I would absolutely kill for a whole album of "keel timing" / "bed head" style actual pop-adjacent stuff, those are amazing songs

i don’t even really know the details of the overlapping recursively constructed storylines on black mile but relistening to the record today i was taken aback by how emotionally devastating certain lines from that record are, often bc they seem to revolve around this inexorable horrible thing happening or having happened. ugh what a powerful album. glad i made a thread for it lol

yeah I never even remotely grokked the "concept" of that album (even by concept album standards, hull's are super vague and evasive to me) but it's incredibly cohesive, and feels unified by the "you can't take it with you" theme. it's not clear to me what the driving force of this one is by comparison, though I did read about the grief angle.

I doubt we'll get a better *sounding* rock record this year, I will say that. this thing sparkles!

fun to see you on my other music message board, simon. the quality of discourse there really makes ilx look like the fucking algonquin table in comparison

hahaha yeah it is WILD there huh? I'm just getting the lay of the land

it’s really nice that we don’t talk about vinyl variants constantly here

I got drunk and listened to this last night and MAN, this album flowed beautifully. Felt very complete as an album, but Manchester Orchestra usually doesn't miss as far as album building. Every single song fits perfectly.

where's the other board? i wanna check it out

no it’s better that you don’t know

well, it may not be quite as good as black mile to me but i'm fully obsessed with this record

"keel timing" is such a banger and i don't think i fully recognized that before i heard the whole thing

I feel you, Brad. I don't know if I happened to be in the right headspace for this album (Million Masks, I mean) to really resonate in me, but MAN, I've found myself drifting back to it over and over this weekend and listening to it IN ITS ENTIRETY.

"let it storm" -> "dinosaur" -> "obstacle" -> "way back," aka the sequence where every song seems to be even better than the last

omg this album. the back to back of "keel timing" and "bed head"!

"obstacle" is just lovely.

the guitar solo in "the internet"!