Bad opinions • Page 133

What Sara Said causes me to well up every time.

 

Photo Album > Transatlanticism

 

This weather has me feeling like stanning on Astral Weeks.
Listening to Astral Weeks and then listening to literally anything else is like drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth

 

I love most Death Cab albums but Transatlanticism is still easily their best imo.

 

I can't. Love it but I can't. Almost no indie rock is > Trans for me

 

Transatlanticism is only your fav Death Cab record if you listened to it right when it came out

 

This also applies to Moondance and Tupelo Honey. You can only follow Van with Van, after which you need a refractory period.

 

Yeah I mean the first few songs are straightforward but then from "Information Travels Faster" onward is a seriously awesome run of Ben's best penmanship. A lot of wisdom on that record.

 

I usually listen to Astral Weeks on repeat then hit up Veedon Fleece

 

It's not just the emotional context or its role in pop culture for me though, every guitar chord and drum track just has an amazing sound and a lot of character to it

Wouldn't be what it is without the production imo. It's Chris Walla's most defining work because it when he was good enough to get everything to sound full and clear but also unpolished enough so the instruments sound real and organic and like they're in the room with you.

 

I didn't hear it until 2010 so nope.

 

Yeah could just as easily have said that or St. Dominic's too

 

Meh, Ben's just always been pretty daring when it comes to his vocal melodies for an indie pop/Folk writer. Even the best singers tend to stay within the same 5 or 6 notes to establish the main melody and then they adlib soulfully on top of that. But there's a lot of Ben Gibbard songs that just the basic, deliberate melodies jump around an entire octave or more. Just his style to have really off the wall patterns that he sings, especially early on.

 

I get that, I just feel like on that album in particular the words seems to be forced in to melodies they don't fit in. It doesn't sound natural on that album the way it does on others, it sounds clumsy at times to me. Obviously it's not like that for the entire album, or even most of it, but it's one of the reasons I like that album less than Facts or the three that followed it. I still think it's great though.

 

Try out XO. While he basically always sounds sad and quiet to varying extent on his records, Either/Or in particular has a certain "darkness"/slow mood to it that makes it come across uneventful at first, took me awhile to really get that record. I think XO is a lot more lively and has more variety which makes it more accessible for a first time Elliott Smith listener.

 

That's blasphemous and yet awesome if true. Like Death Cab, Elliott Smith's discog boasts more of my favorite songs than I can count on my hands.

 

Narrow Stairs is my favorite DCFC album by far

 

I know it may seem predictable of me, but I like Figure 8 the best of his records

 

Hahah, I could have literally guessed if you asked me to. That said, Elliott really showed on that record he can handle making exciting rock music just as much as he can play bedroom corner acoustic songs.

I adore songs 1-7 and then it loses steam IMO though.

 

Interesting that Elliott Smith came up because I'm currently downloading Heaven Adores You, very excited

 

Would love to know more about this thank you very much sir

Been wanting to see that

 

between the bars is like, the best song ever written

 

He really stands out as a guy who blends accessibility with complexity like we were talking about maybe 20 pages back. Phenomenal ear for the exact melodies that are going to pierce your soul, and also immensely talented and intuitive when it comes to changing keys or modes in the chords while making the transition natural. Just constantly was doing things nobody else was doing on an acoustic guitar, and he stands up with any classic rock to me once he got into a good studio and got his hands on full band instruments. I wouldn't ever say he was as good of a singer per se but there's times his melodic patterns are so intense and complex they remind me of Freddie Mercury. "Tomorrow Tomorrow", "Lost and found", and "I didn't Understand" are big examples.

I've been trying to play "Tomorrow Tomorrow" for years. I'm pretty experienced on guitar and I can do the verse for about 45 seconds but I don't even understand his chops in his forearms, doing those sextuplet rhythms in a fast paced tempo for the entire song.

 

Between the bars ain't a top three on the album imo

Still love it, still incredible

 

Hidden in plain view is better than most if not all the bands who came up around the same time as them, and hold up really well now