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Re: ***Official AFTW Midnight Stream Review Thread***
I posted this in the "Big 4 my Ass" thread, but for some reason that was locked up, guess we are trying to promote drinking the coolaid around here, but here are my thoughts:
I am actually kind of surprised at all the amazing reviews about the album. I think some songs are really good (and some really, really suck) but a few points I'd like to make:
1. Lyrics: As people have said, there really isn't a single song with solid lyrics from start to end. There are clauses in songs with thoughtful lyrics but most are way too straightforward (even the riff, which is a great song, has very straightforward and "cheesy" lyrics). I am not saying that they all have to be about death or being satisfied with fucking, but even DMB's old songs about love were very poetic. Please compare "we have danced at the risk of each other, would you like to dance around the world with me" with "if you stay with me that don't mean we gotta stay the same". To me, these clauses have very similar themes (staying together is a risk with hopefully a happy outcome), but the former is much more poetic and thoughtful.
2. Lack of guitar creativity: While I think the other band members are utilized extraordinary well on this album (drunken soldier's intro is phenomenal), I think we tend to underestimate how important creative guitar riffs have been to DMB over the years. To me, one of the more criticized songs on this album, Gaucho, actually has the closest thing to an old school creative guitar riff. Yes, I know Dave is playing on every song, and I know some will say "the riff" by its very nature contains a unique guitar sound, but to me none of Dave's guitar work compares to the big 3. If you look at BTCS, Dreaming Tree, the Stone, Stay, Spoon, PNP Rapunzel, Last Stop and Halloween all are basically driven by the unique, even if sometimes simple, guitar work. You can do the same exercise on Crash and UTTAD as well. Not so here in my opinion.
3. Complexity does not always equal better: I heard in a recent Carter interview that the band has "grown up" with this album. That is actually NOT what I want from DMB. The Beatles wrote some of the most basic songs ever, and they've done pretty well for themselves. I really admire a lot of the work done by the musicians on this album, but we all grew to love DMB on their simple yet extremely creative sounds guided by talented musicians.
4. Dave's voice: I won't go too much into this because this is a personal opinion, but he'll never have his young voice back. His younger voice always just felt more genuine to me, the passion I hear on a say goodbye versus (insert any modern DMB love song here) is just not comparable. I understand this is not something within anyone's control, but it makes it that much harder to reach big 3 status, which leads me to my final, and most important point....
5. The big 3 shouldn't be the standard, and I think deep down most people know it: Say what you want about the production on busted stuff, but any realistic comparison should be to busted stuff, not the big 3. Busted stuff had, in my opinion, 5 absolutely classic songs (Big Eyed Fish, Bartender, Grey Street, Raven, and You Never Know), with only one song being a consensus "meh" around town (where are you going). In comparison, it's rare around here for anyone to say that there was a single amazing song on Everyday, Stand Up, or big whiskey (a lot of very good songs mixed in). Yes, some people think "hands of god" was genius, some like myself thing "beach ball" is phenomenal, but the point I'm making is there is much more of a consensus on the powerful songs of busted stuff than anything that came after. On the other hand, most people agree that there were actually a good amount of mail in songs on those albums. So, to even start comparing to Big 3, I think you need to compare to busted stuff, and I just don't see nearly the same strength here. You can all tell me how amazing drunken soldier is, how creative snow outside is, how belly belly nice is shake me done right. Yes, I agree. But they are just aren't as good as the beasts on busted stuff.
This is a great album from my favorite band, and blows stand up out of the water. For me, right now I'm trying to decide if I think it's better than everyday, and big whiskey stands above both right now (but below busted stuff) for me. As I give it a few more listens, maybe that will change.
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