Balance and Composure - Light We Made (Oct 7 2016) Album • Page 19

Hm. So in your mind, does a threshold exist that an artist can cross to have their attempts to venture out validated? Be that threshold a certain amount of time passing, albums released, songs written, etc? It's just hard for me to imagine a world where artists try new things for any other reasons then the ones you're criticizing them for. Especially since we don't have the ability to look into the true intentions or most artists when they decide to make changes.

And wow I had no idea that Smash Mouth song existed

 

A conscious decision to evolve and switch up sonic elements does not equate to calculated studio tricks lacking artistic merit.

Perhaps in the 5 years since Seperation came out, Jon and the rest of the band's influences and tastes have changed as they themselves have grown in the past 5 years.

Kind of insulting to suggest any shifts in sound are devoid of validity, or that the song writing process was less natural because you may or may not be a fan of what the final product may sound like.

 

Yesss

 

I am not saying any changes in style

there are bands that have done it successfully, I just don't consider this particular case to be successful

that said, I do agree it is impossible to know intent for sure, but I guess we can all instinctively build an assessment on that

but I'll clarify - in the end I don't care if they do music (or change styles) for $$$ of form fame or whatever, but (1) more often than not (NOT ALWAYS), this will result in lukewarm results and (2) it's kind of cool when an artist has a very unique vision it pursues it for the entirety of its career - like Mike Kozelek, you can listen to Red House Painters or you can listen to the jesu collabo and even though they're different, it doesn't seem forced

and there are exceptions, as mentioned (I can think of Ulver)

so, in general I'm all for bands expanding their sound and trying new things, but it sucks when it seems forced or insincere

if some person believes a change is not sincere, it should matter not to the artist, of course - but to us, well, that's why we post in here

g' day

 

I'm now starting to find that if an artist doesn't push themselves to expand their sound by circa LP3 I start to lose interest. There are very few bands - particularly in this scene - who can stick to their original style and keep it feeling interesting and fresh over 6+ years imo. Maybe that speaks to the limitations of music that's originally rooted in this punk/hardcore scene, idk. I think in the case of B&C and their peers this is certainly true - nostalgia aside, their original sound has progressively grown stale over the years and if they don't keep progressing they'll become an irrelevance in the scene (not to mention I'm sure as being well out of step with the members' current influences). Imagine if Turnover had kept to the style of music they played on Magnolia, would anyone even be talking about them now? Then you have a band like Ceremony who've deliberately tried to grow and expand their sound across all their releases with I would argue a fair degree of success. To me that makes them a lot more interesting than if they just kept making blistering, 20 minute hardcore records (not that there's anything wrong with that, but I probably wouldn't anticipate a new Ceremony record as much having so clear an idea what it was going to sound like as I do knowing they're going to keep changing things up).

 

Ceremony is an interesting example because they've succeeded (R Park) and failed miserably too (L Shaped Man)

mewithoutYou is an example of beautiful growth and expansion

B&C appears to have failed

 

great post BTW

 

Late to the conversation but I wanna say that I love Title Fight, especially Floral Green.

 

Floral Green is great

 

I've said it before and gotten shit for it but Floral Green is one of the best records to come out of this class of Run For Cover-core bands period

 

Billy Talent is a band that is an example of not expanding their sound, and failing for it. I haven't listened to their last two albums, but 1-3 was pretty much the same album. By 3 I was very over them.

 

mwY is a band I used to love but haven't really enjoyed much post Brother, Sister.

The newest album sounded good but I haven't really listened much other than a handful of times.

 

I reccomend it again. It was a grower for me, but it clicked after about 10 spins.

 

Ten Stories and Pale Horses may very well be their best work.

 

they are not, but they are still excellent

 

Pale Horses is the best mewithoutYou record imo

 

Yeah, I will. I've got a list of some albums I need to revisit so I'll add that.

I drive an hour to/from work everyday so I have a lot of time :).

 

its funny when you think about mwY progressing because all of their records have all had their own individual sounds/personalites. i felt like they came full circle with pale horses which had a lot of callbacks to their old works but was completely refreshing and new. takes a special act to do the things mwY have done... special special band.

 

I like Pale Horses but it wasn't "enough", in every respect. Even if I like plenty of tracks there better than tracks on Ten Stories, Pale Horses is still the first album they've released that feels like that. Less substantial in quantity, comprehensiveness, and style.

They are a band with a very very respectable discography.

 

I disagree with that completely

 

I mean I'm all for bands like Title Fight, Turnover, and Citzen trying to experiment with new sounds and influences, but by and large the bands in this scene just aren't good enough songwriters to make these changes work. Balance and Composure in my opinion is perhaps the only exception in the scene.

 

well, let's deconstruct their discography

AB Life = passionate debut, shows a lot of promise, band still finding their voice - a product of their time and love for post-hardcore

Catch for Us = a miraculous leap in quality and vision - the band takes their post-hxc foundation and in a completely improbable situation, has a moment of complete lucidity, shoots for the moon and manages to go beyond that - I guess this was a combination of timing, talent, hard work, and magic and good luck - genre classic that, as most classics do, transcends the barrier of the genre

B,S = takes off where catch stopped and adds pretentiousness (not as criticism) and sophistication - the band feels confident and tries new things, including complex arrangements and folk sounds - their art rock album and I guess the critical favorite

Crazy = basically an Aaron album - takes the folk influences and stretches them out without sounding forced (we did have the Spider songs before, not the mention the full-blown folk influence on B,S) - more than a change in direction, it feels like an exploration of a particular sound through the (scratch upon a) lens of mwY - their wildcard

10 S = band returns to rock (even a litttle of posthxc (also, referencing other mwY songs)) and incorporates all their previous influences into a single, more mature package - their mature album

Horses = solidifying their status - refined the previous album sound and reminds everyone who is boss - their victory lap record

even though all albums have "had their own individual sounds/personalites" as you put it, they feel like a natural progression/extension and not a gimmick - that, IMO, is vision & intent at work, and what makes, as you put it, "special special band"

 

It's All Crazy is just...........not for me.

 

I've given mwY a shot every few years since I was like 15 and have never been able to get into them

 

Yeah, it happens. Everyone has those bands that just don't click.