So, the band that everyone peed their pants over and then started hating violently released a second album. I got it a while ago, I’ve been listening to it, and I think it’s surprisingly mediocre. I would have imagined that the band would change a lot and either suck or rock. Instead, they wrote another album of the same stuff as last time, just not as good.
I really loved Is This It, and there was a period where it seemed I listened to the whole thing just about every day. Room on Fire is decent, and the first song “What Ever Happened” is really good. Most of the record, however, sounds like they did before, but a lot more melancholy.
Bummed-out vibes were a great part of the first album, but this one doesn’t have that sexy rock n’ roll swagger. Anyone else pick this one up?
I bought a few tracks off of it online, and I’m enjoying 'em quite a bit. Pretty cool guitar work. I especially enjoy Under Control and Automatic Stop.
And for the record - the first album bored me to tears.
I’ll give you Under Control, but Automatic Stop rubs me wrong. I think the trouble is that on this album the guitar playing was more intricate and a lot more produced, whereas the bass lines fell further in the background just aren’t as great as before. A lot of the appeal of the first album was that it was a low quality recording, but the tones were all unbelievable in a really simple and genuine-feeling way. That grainy, semi-distorted bass sound on the first album was really great, too.
Listening again, I think that the production is as much or more to blame as far as what doesn’t feel right about this album as the songwriting. When I heard “Meet Me In The Bathroom”, “You Talk Way Too Much” and other songs that made it on to this CD in concert a while ago, they felt just right. They’re off on the CD.
I’ll give you Under Control, but Automatic Stop rubs me wrong. I think the trouble is that on this album the guitar playing was more intricate and a lot more produced, whereas the bass lines fell further in the background just aren’t as great as before. A lot of the appeal of the first album was that it was a low quality recording, but the tones were all unbelievable in a really simple and genuine-feeling way. That grainy, semi-distorted bass sound on the first album was really great, too.
Listening again, I think that the production is as much or more to blame as far as what doesn’t feel right about this album as the songwriting. When I heard “Meet Me In The Bathroom”, “You Talk Way Too Much” and other songs that made it on to this CD in concert a while ago, they felt just right. They’re off on the CD.
Make sure and do so, John. I checked em out on iTunes and…I dunno, the new tunes just don’t have quite the same vibe that made Is This It such a good, catchy album.
Reptilia’s great, and I love the guitar line on 12:51. And I’m really liking Whatever Happened. Haven’t listened to it enough yet to compare it to Is This It, but I don’t hate it.
12:51 would have been my favorite song on the album, but the production is, IMHO, all wrong. If it wasn’t for that accursed synth-guitar line it would be a lot better.
Had it been produced the same way as the first album was (i.e. not very much) it would be a particularly excellent crusing song.
I had to review it for the local alternative weekly. I gave it a C. Lucki, you hit the nail right on the head when you called it “mediocre”–I would also add “timid”. A rock band should never, ever, ever be described as “timid”.
And I gave this album every chance to impress me. The night I got it was exceptionally warm, so I jumped in the car, rolled down the windows, blasted the album, and drove around real fast. It should have been the ideal environment to listen to music like that. I listened to it twice, and the second time through I suddenly realized I was bored.
I LOVED the first album. The second one is really good, but yeah, it does kinda have an echoy feeling of the last album. I wouldn’t call it mediocre but it’s not as good as Is This It.
I especially enjoy Under Control and Automatic Stop.