Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface (July 28, 2017) Album • Page 130

I mean I have listened like 5+ times already haha

all of my least favorite parts are the most "Manchester Orchestra" parts haha the "snow is piling up" part of Lead, SD, the chorus of The Moth and The Wolf and the end of the silence!

 

I need that $35. Ha.

 

eh, let me listen first, haha

 

Alien didn't stand out to me on its release (still thought it was a good song) but in the context of the album, I absolutely love it.

 

"The Gold" is still my fav; it makes me stare off into space in some sort of trance. Can't really function while it's on.

 

The Maze is my favorite song on this, The Moth would be second

 

the wolf, the mistake, the parts are my trifecta

 

The Parts was easily my least favorite on first listen and even as my thoughts on all the songs evolve I don't see that part changing

 

The Maze and The Parts are my two standout tracks.

 

hot take ranking
1. grocery
2. sunshine
3. maze
4. alien
5. mistake
6. gold
7. lead, sd
8. silence
9. parts
10. moth
11. wolf

 

really just want to consider alien through grocery as a 13 minute long song tho

 

Can't decide whether I love or hate this take...

 

This is a good album but to call it better than METN or ILAVLAC is a horrendous take.

 

I think this album has a much more interesting palette and construction then both of those albums!

 

Maybe because this band are in my top 5 and those albums mean so much for me but this will never reach them. *and I very much like this album, but come on, this always happens when a new album is released, let's digest it for a few weeks/months and then make that judgement.

 

i definitely think there is a newness bias going on around here. it'll be interesting to revisit in the next month or two. i don't think this will end up beating out METN, SM, or ILAVLAC even though its a good record...but feelings can change.

 

I love The Parts as a standalone track but it feels like the oddball song on the record. The other 10 songs have a certain feel/sound to them and The Parts is completely different. Beautiful bare-bones acoustic song, but I feel like the album would flow better if it just went The Mistake into The Silence.

 

like i said, the parts sounds like an RAGC song, but i love it on here.

 

flaming hot take: Church Of The Good Thief > ABMTTS

 

I'll have to agree to the newness bias. I can't find myself saying many of these songs are better than anything in my Top 10 MO songs of all time (Maze and Silence would put up a fight). I know people disagree with me, and that's totally fine, But the first 4 records have a lot of "jams" that you can throw on and are instant classics and don't need the surrounding pieces. ABMTTS takes a bit more digestion for me and it's a phenomenal piece and cinematic triumph, just not to my personal taste as much as the others. Or it could just be that I've listened to every other song hundreds of times for years. Shake it Out, Pride, I Can Barely Breathe, April Fool, I've Got Friends, etc. as standalone songs vs. Grocery, Mistake, Wolf, etc. just doesn't do it for me. I do think the singles they put out are the ones that work best as singles though.

I still love the record and I'm glad they made it. I love it more than most records to come out in the last few years, but to place it above METN, LAVLAC, Simple Math will take a bit. Those are just a bit more to my taste. To each their own.

 

hot take ranking - steve edition

1. gold
2. maze
3. moth
4. lead
5. mistake
6. grocery
7. sunshine
8. alien
9. wolf
10. silence
11. parts

 

The Wolf starts so cool but the chorus doesn't do much for me.

 

I agree that it's weird to say an album is your favorite by a given band after it's been out for 24 hours, but on the flip side it's just as weird to say an album will never be your favorite.

 

I have absolutely no problem saying this is better than ILAVLAC. The lyrics/story, the production, the vocal and instrumental performance, are all so far beyond ILAV.

Just boggles my mind that people think this band has gotten worse since/peaked on their debut.

This might beat out METN/SM eventually. Black Mile is just so cohesive, which is really important for the album experience to me.

Edit: My biggest problem with black mile is that the transition from the sunshine to the grocery could be a bit smoother.

 

I don't think it's weird, I have listened to it twice now and I know for sure that this will never be my favourite. Those albums appeared at a point in my life when I needed them and I, still, now listen to them multiples times a week. I just can't see this album having that same effect on myself. I am a different person to what I was then and it could well be different if this album was released when METN was. BUT, as I said, I very much like this album.