Say Anything Band • Page 8

Actually been relistening to a few SA albums myself, this week (despite how much I used to listen to them, I try to spend most of my time listening to new or different music). I think that IDOTG has some incredible arrangements and is a better album, but the structure in Hebrews just always gets me. That album fucking flows. I still think the back half of it is lacking. I've enjoyed the recent output, but I'd be happy if Max just regrouped and really put some serious time and energy into the next album. Also, a good producer. I haven't loved the production in an SA album since In Defense (self-titled is great from a so gwriting perspective, but it feels too, idk, mapped-out almost, free of that energy the past two had).

 

Every time I listen to the good stuff from IDOTG I get a bit sad. I wish he still made music like that.

The Church Channel man.

 

I would almost say IDOTG is as good as IARB, despite its flaws. I enjoy them both just about equally, but the structure of Disc 1 just about falls apart soon as "Died a Jew" comes on. (I'd have rounded it out with "An Insult to the Dead" at that point in the album with an upbeat song between that and "Retarded in Love.") and a lot of the lyrics don't hold up, like, at all. I know it's somewhat (half?) about defending a genre that largely relies on pettiness and "You hurt me. I hate you."-type subjects, but songs like "People Like You..." are a turn off for me in that regard.

 

Love People Like You

 

If I could cut IDOTG down to like 16 songs I'd put it on par with IARB.

 

I don't like People Like You except that bridge

 

I like every song on In Defense except Died a Jew and Retarded in Love.

 

I'd agree with that for sure. I used to feel the same way about "I Used To Have A Heart," but that song's grown on me quite a bit.

 

Dare I say I enjoy IDOTG more than ...Is a Real Boy at this point in my life? Idk, they're pretty close in my mind. Lots of memories connected to that one.

 

In Defense is my favorite Say Anything release.

 

I honestly think it's one of the best double-albums...ever? I'd say it's at least as good as Mellon Collie to me. Maybe it isn't Exile on Main St, but for the pop-punk generation, I can'tthink of another album as ambitious.

 

Not really pop punk but in this scene def The Mother, the Mechanic, the Path is more ambitious and better in every way

 

I think IDOTG is very flawed but I still think it's way better than TMTMTP.

 

fair enough, totally allowed, I just personally think TMTMTP showcases things that are absent in IDOTG and does things that I like more on the things that are comparable. Like IDOTG to me is the things present in Say Anything up to IARB magnified and blown up to wild proportions. And at the end of the day, while it has a theme, it feels more like a collection of songs. TMTMTP on the other hand has TEN expanding their lyrical horizons pretty broadly, the band improving technically across the board, and musically expanding the kinds of genres they explore with none of the sounds being handled badly. After all that, TMTMTP is still a narratively cohesive album and not just a collection of songs. Overall, I think IDOTG doubles down on what Say Anything was at the time (with some experimenting, yeah, I'm not gonna try and short change them there), but TMTMTP is the sound of a band actively trying to grow and I think I prefer the risk of the latter.

 

It could just be because I like the album more so I've spent much more time with it but I find the narrative in IDOTG more apparent than the one in TMTMTP and I'd say it's more diverse and interesting musically too honestly. I feel like they're both pretty ambitious. I'm just not really a fan of pre-In Currents TEN.

 

Yeah, the narrative in TMTMTP is mostly implied on the first two discs -- I think part of it is that they can stand alone as individual discs that way while being stronger as one larger work -- but the only thing that IDOTG does in terms of diversity that TMTMTP doesn't is play with electronic elements that aren't present in a musical way in the latter. But as far as having a preference for one or the other, yeah it makes total sense that you'd have a better connection to something you actually like to listen to, haha. My biggest mark against IDOTG is that I don't really like a lot of the lyrical ground covered on it. By the time I got to it, I was already kind of wary of the tropes that Max uses on that one

 

I still really love at least half of that album lyrically but yeah there's some bad stuff on there too.

 

I know some people that passionately love TMTMTP, but I have never been a fan of that album. Most bands struggle with double-albums (and I think IDOTG is very solid in that respect), a triple-album is obviously ambitious but filler and loss of quality are unavoidable at that point. It's way too much.

 

I don't want to derail the thread much more than I have but what do you call filler in that case? stuff that doesn't work narratively or dud songs? bc if the latter, alright, fair, it's impossible to not have songs that some people might not like the more songs you introduce into a project, but i do remember in the making of video for that album Ace had that album storyboarded to hell and back. also i just personally disagree about the loss of quality. Variation of quality, sure, but I think each song holds up as just a good song. I'll shut up now tho! Now it's just me explaining why I love this and I don't want me to devolve into explaining why everyone else should too haha

 

i really should give IDOTG a few spins, i love all of their other albums but i could never get through that one, always seemed long and inconsistent.

 

It's absolutely long and inconsistent but the good stuff is worth it imo.

 

TMTMTP is my favorite album of all time but everyone knows that by now probably. I don't think there's a dud on it and I love the approach where the music on the first two discs can stand alone without being overbearing with plot. To me, it saves the songs from being awkward lyrically/structurally and/or distant emotionally, which tends to be a problem I have when it comes to a majority of concept records. To me, the first two discs add emotion and depth to the feelings of the characters discussed in The Path, it takes snapshots of moments in their life and maybe obscures them a little bit to make them more broadly relatable to the audience? Idk how else to describe it lol. I just find the lyrics on The Mother and The Mechanic to be very relatable on a personal level, but I also can pretty easily tell where they fit into place in the story of The Path.

As far as IDOTG goes, I think it's a better album on a musical level than a lyrical one, and even then I still find it kind of flawed, mostly structurally. I honestly hate a lot of lyrics on that album, and it makes listening to it in its entirety basically impossible as I always skip a couple tracks (Died A Jew is a song I never care to hear again, for example). IARB has its problems for sure, but imo IDOTG more than doubles down on the problematic elements. Tons of misogyny, racism, a slur in the lyrics and title of one song, among other things that kinda rub me the wrong way. It takes me out of the album as a whole these days, even though I'll return to select songs from it from time to time because I still love them melodically and have lots of nostalgia and sentimental value attached to that record. Idk, I also don't think the concept of the album comes across very coherently, but maybe it's because I skip around a lot idk.

I like you.

 

From Max's twitter last night:

"I feel comfortable in disclosing that the next Say Anything record will not be written from a first person perspective....it's a story about someone else.....I'll be turning towards my friends and people like you to help me be faithful to the experience informing the record"

SUPER excited about this idea.


He also tweeted this last night:

"Thank you to @chorusfm and RIPabsolutepunk for continuing to treat us like real musicians whose work affords a real dialogue"

Maybe he is reading this thread?!

 

Hi Max if you are reading this thread.

 

Very cool, both the shoutout and the album idea. I'll always listen to new music from Max. I owe it to him, even if his recent output isn't necessarily always for me.