The Wonder Years - Sister Cities (April 6, 2018) Album • Page 168

I never thought I’d be enjoying a new Wonder Years album in 2018 but here we are

 

heard the title track twice and held off until release day. tomorrow's gonna be fun. the p4k review is nice too, though i was kinda looking forward to seeing Ian dive deep into it.

 

I'm sure Ian will be posting something within the next few days

 

Well written review too. Score might seem low to people who don't really read Pitchfork, but the writer clearly seemed optimistic about the future of the band. Clearly, he believes this album is a step forward which I agree with.

 

I was shocked to see the review on Pitchfork. A score in the 7's is very good for that site. I mean the highest they go is usually 8.2..who knows why. Weird to see our little pop punk band get attention outside of the scene.

Doing my first real listen on the drive to work today, can't wait.

 

Every time I see a Pitchfork review now I think of this and realise how dumb that sort of scoring system is

 

They'll review emo bands for the most part, but very rarely they review a pop punk band these days.

You'd be surprised at how high they've gone for emo bands though. American Football got an 8.6 for their first album in a retrospective review. Same with Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate. The band who must not be named also got a couple of mid 8's for D&G and SF. But I think the highest they've gone for emo is The Appleseed Cast. Gave a straight up 9 to the Low Level Owl volumes.

 

Bad news everyone who pre-ordered a book from Kontraband : they haven't even RECEIVED the books yet. It's gonna be a long, long wait.

 

Ugh.

 

Had this issue with the pre-release download. But I found that the CD sounds MUCH better. Haven't tried streaming services yet. YMMV.

 

First impressions: This is their best album.

 

That Pitchfork review came off as kind of entitled, in a sense. The way it was written implied that the author was owed something by the band. Also, what's up with the constant Brand New comparisons with this band lately?

 

My preorder is out for delivery. The Sister Cities book with the cool looking swirl. Can’t wait to spin in this weekend.

 

HAPPY RELEASE DAY EVERYONE !!

This record really really clicked last night on a 4 hour ride home to Philly from Upstate NY. Perfect timing for that ride.

I haven’t checked out the book yet.
What’s everyone thoughts on that?

 

I think it’s just more of a career arch thing. The Wonder Years are the most respected band to come out of a non-respected genre.

 

It's great to see them being picked up by more mainstream outlets. They get ignored because the genre they come from is a dead end shitshow, but they've been successfully escaping that dead end for years now and still they got snubbed. They deserve that respect.

 

I thought the Brand New reference was out of place as well. Their career arc is amazing but I look at it as way more organic than Brand News. It just seemed like they felt the need to compare them to someone similar in the scene.

I wish the review focused more on the actual music of the album than their career.

Fist listen was interesting. I'm surprised how intense some of the songs are. Kyoto is going to just kill live. Really enjoyed all tracks on first listen except Heavens Gate and Ghosts of Right Now. I think Ghosts of Roght Now will grow. It was just so intense and I found it hard to focus on the vocals.

Overall I'm just thrilled with how solid the musicianship is on the album. So many unique twists and turns. Getting the book today!

 

This album rips, was never a fan of their previous work ( besides no closer to heaven). Some of these songs are the best I've heard from this genre in years.

Also am I the only one getting some JEW vibes from this ?

 

I wrote an 1100 word review for this

 

Oh. Shit :(

 

Where is it at?

 

Apart from WTBFC, Heaven's Gate was the song that clicked the least for me. And right now I'm loving it. This record is so good.

 

Is it just me, or does this album go by extremely quickly? I feel like whenever I listen to it, I get to TOGHTHM and am shocked to be on the final track already.

 

It’ll be posted whenever Jason posts it today haha

 

Where do we think this album is going to chart? Very interested in that.