Manchester Orchestra Band • Page 28

"My friend Marcus, he sleeps in my basement, his father touched more than spirit, now he can hardly sleep" is legit such a well crafted line. It's immediately horrific. It's ostensibly subtle, but not actually because you know exactly what he's talking about, making it almost more cutting and blunt than if he'd come out and say it -- it almost hints at the hypocrisy of the sort of decorum that a religious figure/possible religious leader should have but in this case is sorely lacking. It makes the subject familiar by giving him a name, someone you can latch onto and sympathize with, and lets the father be a stand in for religious hypocrisy in general by leaving him nameless, as well as diminishing them as a person by doing the same. What a good goddamn line wow, and the delivery is spot on too; it's heartbroken, but the end is almost this heavily contemptuous sneer of distaste at the situation, like he can't believe this shit really happens.

 

Yay more MO for me to buy. I shall own anything this band ever presses.

 

still waiting on that first bad books record to be repressed....

 

Hope is great

 

Cope is the bees knees. Love that album. Simple Math was what actually got me into them though.

 

I thought I remember Andy saying it would be sometime soon in an interview earlier this year. May have been the same interview he said Bad Books 3 would be in 2018, but now I can't remember where/when I heard it.

 

Hope is unbelievable and I enjoy it far more than Cope. I will always have a special bond to it because it came out right when my son was born, so I played it nonstop to get him to sleep.

 

I've always enjoyed MO but never really got hooked on them. Decided to play Mean Everything to Nothing on a long car ride last weekend and it finally clicked. I've been hooked ever since.

Question for the diehard fans... how are their albums typically viewed/ranked?

 

I would say most people probably rank METN first and then the other three are all over the board for fans.

I personally rank METN first, and then Virgin and Simple Math are probably tied for second for me then Cope is fourth. Cope, to me, is easily their weakest album. I much prefer Hope to it.

Have you listened to Bad Books or Right Away, Great Captain?

 

Virgin and METN are (for the most part) revered while Simple Math and COPE are more polarizing.

 

Though HOPE seems to be pretty revered as well.

 

I have not. Only what's on Spotify. I can find those on Youtube I assume?

 

I assumed METN would be the most people's favorite. I haven't stopped listening to it for about 10 days now.

After that I'd have to say Cope/Hope > Virgin > Simple Math, but I haven't listen to Virgin or Simple Math as much.

 

I would assume so. Bad Books has two albums (Self Titled and II) and Right Away, Great Captain has three albums. They're all great. I prefer RAGC a little more than Bad Books, but they all have major Manchester Orchestra vibes, obviously.

 

Ohhh I thought these were MO releases I hadn't heard of lol. I'll definitely check them out!

 

Bad Books is Manchester Orchestra with Kevin Devine. Right Away, Great Captain is Andy's solo project. It's super dark and depressing.

 

That's how I would rank them. too. I hardly ever listen to Simple Math.

 

I think I'd honestly go Virgin > Simple Math > Cope/Hope > METN. I think I just overplayed it when it came out. I should go back and listen to it again.

 

Mean everything to nothing is number one followed by virgin and cope.. simple
Math isn't bad just didn't accomplish what it set out to do

 

All the talk about Hope yesterday, had me itching to listen this morning, such a great way to start the day.

 

I can't get into Hope. Also think Cope is just ok

 

I've said this so many times on here, but I honestly think there is an argument for any of them being their best.

 

Cope is boring structurally. I'm pretty sure every single song on it is just palm muted verses and power chord choruses repeated

 

It's nothing that's going to wow you or anything, but it's solid all the way through.

 

My only complaint with Cope is that its just a giant wall of sounds sometimes. I really like it, but I feel like it can be too much all at once and then you lose some of it. Having Hope really made me appreciate Cope so much more because after hearing the "toned down" versions.