Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God (April 30, 2021) Album • Page 121

It has not but some reviews are out and a bunch of us itt (myself included) have advances!

 

Literally everyone in this thread other than myself, and apparently you, do not have an advance of the album.

 

I don’t believe so, technically.

 

Telepath is amazing. Wish it was longer.

 

I never really liked COPE until right now. Hitting the spot this morning

 

"telepath" is beautiful as hell

 

Yes, the record is very very good.


And the best songs aren’t even singles.

 

I guess I'll jot down my quick stream of consciousness review since they're all dropping. The non-spoiler part is my initial takes of all the other records so you know my taste and whether to trust my initial opinion in the first place.

I've been listening to the record for about a month and a half now, and it's been a daily listen. I've been a fan of Manchester since the late Simple Math years when I discovered them and so naturally I wasn't there for the releases of ILAVLAC, METN, and Simple Math and didn't get to really dive into those records when they came out and in that era of indie emo grunge.

Once I started going back and listening, I did find myself instantly falling in love with the discography and Colly Strings was an initial standout. Wolves At Night, Where Have You Been? I Can Barely Breathe and Now That You're Home were my favorites on that record, but I didn't really get into Sleeper, I Can Feel Your Pain, and Don't Let Them See You Cry.

For Mean Everything to Nothing, The Only One, Shake It Out, I've Got Friends, Pride, In My Teeth was my favorite run on that record. Tony the Tiger grew on me a little, but I didn't really find myself going to My Friend Marcus often and didn't appreciate the title track until seeing it live. The River was a phenomenal closer though.

For Simple Math, I loved Deer immediately. It was the first fully slow MO song (not counting RAGC and BB) that I really enjoyed as soon as I heard it. Mighty was fun but felt a bit odd in the tracklist. The rest of the songs really pulled me, but the final 3 tracks took a little bit to grow on me. Now Leave it Alone and Apprehension are some of my favorites on the record, but I still don't love Leaky Breaks.

Not gonna lie, I do love Cope and Hope. Just great straightforward records. Though I will say All That I Really Wanted is very forgettable and a bit of it does blend together. There is no real WOW song on there like there was on records before. It was all pretty decent. I only listen to a few regularly from it. (Top Notch, Every Stone, Cope)I'm really glad HOPE elevated the record and certain songs became HOPE staples. (Choose You, Girl Harbor, The Mansion, Indentions)

Black Mile was surprisingly a grower for me. I was used to the straightforward crunchy guitar sounds in Shake It Out, April Fool, Cope, I Can Barely Breathe, and I Wasn't sure what to think for a bit. I will say that The Maze, The Gold, and The Silence instantly got me...but Lead, The Grocery, The Alien, The Sunshine all took some time. I will be fully honest and say that The Wolf and The Mistake just never really hit with me and I don't find myself returning to them often. The Wolf feels a bit muddied and I wished it was a bit more straightforward, The Mistake sounded a bit too poppy. The Parts is a lovely song but feels very odd in its placement and compared to the noise of the rest of the album feels a little out of place.

I tell you all of this, only because I think it will help you to understand my tastes so you can know where I'm coming from when I review the record as I think it's important to know what kind of MO songs I enjoy.

I knew that they were continuing on the Black Mile path, but I wasn't sure what that meant exactly, having heard the Bed Head Demo in Jan 2019 it felt like the record was going to be a blend of METN and BM and I was HERE FOR IT. Instead, the single for Bed Head dropped and I was a bit unsure. The electronic drums made me think of NIN, and the distorted electronic sounds really threw me off. It sounded very noisy and not their usual stripped-down raw sound. After each subsequent listen, however, I grew to love it more and more. Even better in the car and with headphones on. The Bridge really captured me and was my absolute favorite part of the song.

I got the record shortly before Keel Timing dropped, so I only had Bed Head to go off of. Listening to Inaudible, I was instantly called back to The Maze, except for it felt like The Maze on steroids. Lots of string sounds, piano, keys. No immediate guitars. Just LOTS of layered Andy voices that sound very angelic and almost music theatre, rock opera opening. Drums kick in and it evolves the song a bit and builds to a big crescendo with a big sweeping sound that just envelops you. Vocals just belting out, swirling sounds and keys in the background. Gorgeous.

It calms down and a slow groovy rift comes in and then kicks off into a loud electronic pulse and Angel of Death kicks in. I can't describe enough how dynamic this song is. Background creepy voices. Sweeping big sounds. Lifting echoes. Big swirls and then quiet after each chorus. The bridge removes a lot of noise and then slowly builds it back up to a BIG FUCKING ROAR in the most spectacular way and the song is back to an evolved and elevated state. The last third of the song is a groovy slow disparate breakdown of different sounds with some haunting vocals that leads right into the next song.

Y'all know Keel Timing by now, but I love the build of this song. HOOOLYYYYYYY. and the yells. AAHHHHHHHHH. I know, very descriptive Bold. I love when it gets quiet and he almost whispers and then it kicks right back in.

Keel really elevates Bed Head and made me love it even more.

I will say right now that Angel of Death -> Keel Timing -> Bed Head will be their best 3 run of songs ever. Better Than The Alien -> The Grocery, better than Shake It Out -> Pride. It is going to melt some faces live.

Annie was my least favorite immediately. Straight electronic guitars with not too much distortion sounds. The whole song leans almost entirely on Andy's voice. The constant same little riff in the background. Feels like creeping around at night. The instruments never really build at all. Just Andy's voice really talk-singing through a bit. Some echoes in the back. It's been growing on me though. Folky vibes. But not in a slow way.

Telepath was an immediate favorite on the slow ones. Gorgeous. Thoughtful. This one reminded me a bit of The Parts, but if The Parts was full of a LOT more layers and it actually fit. Thoughtful. Tears. Longing.

Someone compared Let It Storm to Ed Sheeran and I laughed a bit but then had to think about it. It starts out a little similar to Telepath with a soft acoustic backing and sweet soft singing. But with each chorus there is a big layered echo that builds and builds each time. Then each verse is back to the softness. The last third of the song though builds into a distorted electronic sound and Andy gets even louder with the chorus and it really just keeps building. Same tempo, just louder and louder and more layered. Doesn't explode into a rock song really. It's good! but, not really one of my favorites.

Dinosaur then comes in and it's very simple with a soft electronic guitar with some soft claps that start in the background and it kind of just swells up and down a little bit. After every "Over and overrrrr" it sort of swirls around and you get this impending sense of what is coming. This continues and builds until the last third of the song (are you starting to understand the theme) where it just EXPLODES before calming back down to the same as the first third to finish off the song. Also not one of my favorites as I feel like these two songs just sort of take their time to build up and by the time they do the song is over.

Obstacle is my favorite Side B song and I think does a fantastic job of what they were trying for on Side B. The acoustic guitar riff comes in. Andy comes in singing and using his voice as another melody. The drums kick in after two verses. Then another two verses and keys drop in. Another two verses and there's another transformation. Andy sounds incredible on this song. They know how to take away and introduce the instruments so well on this song. They all just accentuate his voice. Again, the last third of the song kicks off, but it is perfectly placed and this time the takeaway and calm down sounds really effective and the lyrics really connect to it as it slows to a whisper leading into the next.

Way Back has a nice slow acoustic melody with little sounds and it feels like waves of the ocean. Slowly coming in and out. Lots of the title of the song repeated over and over and rising. Eventually, a choir of Andy's sings waaayyy baccckkkk as Andy starts singing verses with more of what sounds like the music theatre and rock opera melodies. Same guitar melody still going through the whole song.

The Internet was probably the biggest disappointment for me. I don't hate the song, but it sort of feels like The Silence's stepbrother. Like they really tried to recreate it, and it just didn't work this time. It builds up to another third act electronic explosion as dueling Andy's sing versus against each other, but right when you think it's about to GO OFF, it gets super quiet again suddenly and he has a conversation with his daughter about the boy who cried wolf and then andy echo sings into the nether as the record comes to a close. Sounding like the end of someone's life.


Overall I do love the record, and it feels like it's for sure one of their best. This is absolutely phase 2 of the band along with Black Mile. This ain't your daddy's METN or LAVLAC or COPE record. While softer songs have appeared on records before, they're really trying to elevate them and make them dynamic with lots of different layers and builds. Gone are the days of the Deer, I Can Feel Your Pain, The Parts, etc. Instead, you are getting the Neil Youngy, folky, Andy-fied acoustic songs on their records. It crosses genres and really shows off their talent. Though sometimes I wish I could get a full record of their Side A sounds, and a full record of their Side B sounds. It's hard to really hear Tim or Prince shine in side B.

I have no idea how they're gonna play half these songs live. I don't really see Let It Storm or The Internet or Way Back being in their sets, but adding Inaudible, Angel, Keel, Bed, and maybe Telepath or Obstacle would be fantastic.

They're evolving and maturing and their sound continues to age and get to be a bit more mixed as Andy dives deeper into the folky interesting quieter parts. This really isn't a 100% indie rock band anymore, at least on records, and I'm totally here for it.

 

Loving how that last post looks like a redacted military document

 

Why don’t we just settle this once and for all: who has the biggest dick in here?

 

leaky breaks is a top 5 manorch song

 

if you have to ask it isn’t you

 

I feel like that would help a lot tbh now that you mention it

 

Telepath is great!

I'm hoping I enjoy this record. The only albums from them I've really liked are METN and Black Mile. I plan on revisiting Virgin at some point.

 

I almost spoiled myself with it, but I only have to wait a few more days so I'm gonna hold off.

 

Revisit Virgin Losing A Child. Way beyond its years good.

 

"Accompanied by a new video directed by Isaac Deitz, the new single also comes alongside the news that the band will be celebrating the record’s release with ‘Transmissions from Echo Mountain: A Countdown to The Million Masks of God’, a 12-hour event broadcast via their YouTube from the Asheville, NC, studio where it was made."

(Starts at Noon EST on Thursday)

 

godzilla

 

Are there Bsides beyond the 11 tracks on the standard record and if so are they on a the digital copy?

 

I'm not aware of any songs outside of the 11 song tracklist. When I say Side B I'm just referencing the back half of the album. Telepath - The Internet, that appears on the other side of the vinyl.

 

I sometimes wonder if I would have been saved from the dork wrath if I only knew how to do spoiler tags on an internet forum.

 

If you could combine Hope and Cope into one album, how would you do it? I made my tracklisting a while ago.

1. Top Notch (Hope)
2. Girl Harbor (Cope)
3. Choose You (Cope)
4. Indentations (Cope)
5. All That I Really Wanted (Hope)
6. The Mansion (Cope)
7. Every Stone (Hope)
8. The Ocean (Hope)
9. Never Really Been Another Way Out (Cope)
10. Trees (Hope)
11. See It Again (Cope)
12. Cope (Cope)
13. After the Scripture (Cope)

I honestly like listening to this playlist more than each album individually.

 

fyi

[spoiler]text you want not to be spoiled[/spoiler]

 

I know...talking about Side B made me wonder if any deluxe versions had additional tracks or “bsides”, because sometimes those tracks are gems a la I Know How To Speak, I was a Lid etc. Just curious if I missed something

 

Well.

My dick is the biggest.

naw, not really, maybe above average on a proper diet. Maybe.



Thanks, man.