Brian Fallon - Sleepwalkers (February 9, 2018) Album • Page 32

I am now in post-new release malaise, where I realize I have to wait 2 years for more great new music from BF

 

Painkillers doesn’t even have the best version of Long Drives. Great record, but I think Brian was trying to discover what a solo Brian album would be, and it became a combination of Americana, Gaslight, Folk, and so many vibes. It was Butch’s first record with him, so I’d imagine that can be hard to feel out. Maybe it’s not his strength either doing more punk influenced music. His work on Frank Turner’s album wasn’t my favourite either. Again, still liked Positive Sings. Every album Brian has been a part if is great and brings something to the table. Just more of my interpretation of what could have happened. I still listen to Pinkillers a lot as I do with all Brian’s music.

To me, Sleepwalkers is just more connected.

 

I hoping for some b sides or something like the Georgia EP again.

 

Yes please, except easier to acquire this time please. Itunes would be wonderful.

 

Totally agree. He should release those songs digitally too.

 

I feel like most people who were disappointed in Painkillers were attached to the MATZ songs. I liked MATZ but never listened to those recordings a ton. I think the Painkillers versions of those songs are all better than the MATZ versions, but I also think that none of those songs are the highlights of the record, with the exception of maybe “Smoke.”

 

That and I was hoping for THC part 2, instead of really seeing what a solo album could/would be.

 

I can't speak for anyone else, but this is me exactly. I absolutely adored the Molly and the Zombies songs and played them a lot. I've easily spent as much times with those songs as I have with Get Hurt and Painkillers. For me personally, the MATZ version of Long Drives is a top-tier Brian Fallon song, right up there with his best ever. The Painkillers version always sounds to me like the whole band is playing the song with the brakes on. I do find the Painkillers arrangement of Smoke to be the ultimate iteration of that song though. I can't hear it any other way. Red Lights honestly sounds the same to me on both releases, albeit slightly higher quality for the fully produced, mixed & mastered Painkillers version.

Plus, I find a lot of the Georgia EP to be essential songs and wish some of them were on the album in fully produced form. I realize that a lot of my 'problems' with the album are from holding too closely to what I wanted out of the album versus what Brian made.

 

This is a good point, and I think Fallon added a lot of fuel to this fire by calling his backing band 'the Crowes' and playing those songs live on his solo tour. It made you feel like the two projects would be connected, which - at least to my ear - they're just not. Gaslight, Horrible Crowes and his solo work are all distinctly different animals.

I'm curious as to what his setlist will be like on this upcoming tour. Once we've all had Sleepwalkers for awhile, will be just do songs from Painkillers/Sleepwalkers? Will he keep doing a couple Gaslight songs in a unique way? Will he do THC stuff? Personally, I sorta hope he sticks to all the solo stuff because that's my favorite, but I could see the reasoning behind anything.

 

Long Drives is the only MATZ songs that really sounded better. I’m really happy the Brian did what became Painkillers over all the MATZ songs. I think it was the right choice.

And now, recording under his own name allows him to kinda do what he wants in terms of sound. I don’t think Sleepwalkers eventual follow up with sound like it does. Or Pinkillers and so on.

 

Every time I hear people talk about the Zombies songs, I just think I must be crazy. Because I hear rough demos, not finished songs.

They're good rough demos! I like them. But it isn't even a question as to which version is better. For me anyway.

 

Relistening to this today based on our convo. Might've changed my mind about where it sits. "I Can't Think About It Now" is a fucking jam, as are "Somewhere Along The Way" and "Right On Time".

Weirdly, I'm not feeling the title track on this go-around. Don't hurt me.

 

I feel silly even saying I had 'problems' with Painkillers. This is an album I bought on iTunes, CD and vinyl with no way to actually play vinyl anyhow. I bought the Georgia EP on vinyl also. I caught them when they came through Boston on the tour and it was incredible to see Brian appear to be genuinely having fun and enjoying playing music again after what seemed like a pretty rough patch. The CD has not left my Subaru since I got my hands on it and I listen to it all the time.

It's just that if I had somehow been in on the making of the album, say I had been rocking flannel shirts and Red Wing boots with them in the studio and coproduced it with Butch and had input, the pitch for my version of the album would've gone like this:

1. A Wonderful Life
2. Painkillers
3. Among Other Foolish Things
4. Mojo Hand
5. Smoke
6. Low Love (produced by Butch, mixed & mastered like the rest of the album)
7. Nobody Wins
8. Rosemary
9. Long Drives (Butch produced version of MATZ arrangement, mixed & mastered)
10. Georgia (produced by Butch, mixed & mastered)
11. Honey Magnolia
12. Open All Night

Whereas with the new album Sleepwalkers I wouldn't change a goddamn thing. Album is absolutely perfect to me as it is.

As far as the MATZ songs sounding like rough demos - I don't really value audio fidelity that much compared to how much I like the song. I really only even notice anything if a song or songs is/are distinctly lower quality compared to other songs on the same album. So with those songs they all sounded the same quality.

 

I hear the same. The MATZ songs never did much for me.........until Painkillers came out.

 

I wouldn't change a thing about Painkillers. I adore that album.

 

is it common knowledge that Brian has gotten re-married? did i miss that? on the uproxx bruce springsteen podcast episodes just released he very casually drops "my wife" and goes on to say she's from england. great for him.

 

He seems to play things about his private life pretty close to his chest, at least moreso than some other artists whose work I follow. But he has recently been talking about being married again and being a father.

 

I cannot imagine cutting Steve McQueen or Red Lights lol. I think I feel about Painkillers what you feel about Sleepwalkers. (And probably what I will also feel for Sleepwalkers by the time all is said and done)

 

Yeah, even all of that was under the guideline that the album had to be roughly the same length. I would have loved for Painkillers to be all 12 songs from the album plus Georgia, Low Love, The Blues, Mary & Tin Pan Alley.

For me, Steve McQueen is a really good song but Low Love is a great song.

 

I'm good with all 15 songs!

 

Yeah, he married again in 2015, I believe. They have a daughter, as well.

While wanting to avoid saying too much because I want to respect his privacy, but also an innocent enough little tidbit, is that his wife's name is Stacey. So if that adds another dimension to one song in particular, there you go, haha.

 

I think the MATZ version of Long Drives is better.

 

I mean Steve McQueen is still Brian Fallon singing about Steve McQueen and fast cars and life and growing older. It's not like he randomly turns into The Chainsmokers and takes a dump inside all of our ears for one song.

 

i assumed immediately haha, awesome. some of the songs on painkillers make more sense now as well, especially steve mcqueen.

 

That too. I pretty much stopped expecting that the moment Butch was announced as the producer, though. Or at very least when we heard "A Wonderful Life."

This is what Fallon said when I interviewed him about Painkillers a few years back:

I respect this reasoning. I like both versions, but I think the Painkillers version is a better fit with the other songs on the record. I haven't listened to the Molly version in a LONG time though.

This is kind of how I feel, too. I also kind of feel that way about Sink or Swim, though.

You actually named two of my least favorites there! I like all the songs, but I like "I Can't Think about It Now" and "Right on Time" a little less than the other seven songs on the record.

But how can you not be feeling the title track!?