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Old 09-18-2012, 09:14 PM   #61
NaglesUMD
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Re: AFTW overrated because of Lillywhite?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kshathra View Post
I couldn't agree more with the OP.

I see AFTW as an inverse of Busted Stuff. Whereas Busted Stuff featured mediocre performances of really amazing songs, AFTW has really amazing performances of really mediocre songs. Lillywhite did HIS job very well--the band (and really, Dave) just missed the mark a bit this time out. It's not BAD; I want to like it and had really high hopes, but it's just boring and uninspired. Too many bad lyrics, too many predictable and/or nonexistent melodies.

Nothing illustrates this for me better than "Drunken Soldier." I had such high hopes for that song--I wanted nothing more to hear Jeff, Tim, Rashawn, and hell even Boyd shred over a 4 minute outro. When I listened through the album for the first time and was generally underwhelmed with what I was hearing, I always thought "well just wait until Drunken Soldier!" And when I got there, I just heard a cool-but-noodly, some decent riffing, then some TERRIBLE lyrics, a few more cool riffs, a few more terrible lyrics, then a reasonably promising outro that just... faded out.

I may be the only person in all of DMB fandom who thought "that's it!?" at the end of "Drunken Soldier." You could trim it down to 5 minutes in length and the song wouldn't suffer at all. "Squirm" was WAY more epic at half the length. I was hoping for the DMB equivalent of Umphrey McGee's "Mantis"--an epic with all sorts of cool disparate sections that builds to a climax that really states what the band is about. What I got was a cheesy carpe diem song with an extra long intro and outro.

So, like the album, it has all sorts of ingredients I SHOULD like, but it misses the mark (particularly in the melody and lyrics departments) as often as it hits, and never really NAILS it. The album comes out to less than the sum of its parts.

It is what it is. I gave up trying to analyze the overall direction of this band years ago, so I don't have the "the sky is falling" feeling that I felt when Everyday and Stand Up hit. DMB is a veteran band that's released 8 albums, and when you release 8 albums they can't all be the best. They've released 3 masterpieces, 2 very enjoyable but imperfect albums (BS and BW), 2 turds (ED and SU), and one that's not horrible but just really boring (AFTW). Most bands would kill to have a track record like that.

Hopefully they go back to Lillywhite again for the next one, and maybe they'll hit it closer to the mark then.
Ok so I hardly ever post on the boards and it seems there's an endless revolving door of negativity regarding what is supposed to be a fan site for ur favorite band (.I don't see any other reason why some1 would become a member of this site unless DMB is ur fav band)
With that said, I am unfortunately forced to agree with a lot of the opinions expresses in the above quoted post regarding AFTW, especially concerning Drunken Soldier. With all the hype built up about this track from a few lucky people who were given the once on a lifetime gift of being able to preview the album months b4 it was released, I feel it did not match up. I hate to feel this way about my favorite band, but the truth is the truth. There are many songs I do enjoy off AFTW and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing a lot of them live this summer @ Mansfield N2 and SPAC N1, with the band's performance of If Only @ SPAC N1 making If Only my favorite AFTW track to hear live. All I'm saying is that, for me, AFTW didn't deliver on the scale all the hype promised.....
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