Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface (July 28, 2017) Album • Page 136

This has definitely resonated with me more on initial listens than any Manchester record in the past.

That's really saying something.

 

Fuck me the Grocery

 

Yea it's a career highlight

 

Oh yeah, this is without question their best release.

 

I need to listen with headphones more, so much to unpack.

At some point this week I should probably listen to something other than this record?

 

First Listen Reactionary Opinion - I have heard seldom few albums from already good bands that actually put their past work to shame.

 

I'm here to join the party and say this album rules.

 

Not sure an album exists that could put METN to shame but I think this is a better record

 

I could probably give you a good list of such albums in hindsight.

 

It's not like this makes METN a bad record or anything haha. But I've always been a huge fan of specific songs, not so much albums. It's like every complaint I've ever had with this band has been addressed here while maintaining and growing upon the reasons I've always liked them. It's a first listen so some things will fall out of favor I'm sure, but none of their works came close to leaving this impression on the first run through.

 

guys I LOVE THIS RECORD.

and I've never spun a ManOrch record more than 3 times. I feel like they finally hit their groove. I don't want to say anything that would hurt a longtime fan's feelings.... I'll just say I've always felt like they had potential that they never reached until now.

 

Ugh, okay, let me try it.

The Maze
The Moth
The Silence
The Grocery
Lead, SD
The Gold
The Alien
The Mistake
The Wolf
The Sunshine
The Parts

I dislike The Parts because like someone said earlier I feel it doesn't fit whatsoever, but other than that every song here is incredibly solid, they were super hard to rank. In particular, The Grocery and Lead, SD took big leaps on my second listen.

 

Album ranking!!!

ABMTTS
SM
ILAVLAC
METN
HOPE
COPE

also just got those 4th pressing vinyls and what were they doing with the METN artwork. I don't get that one.

 

So many of the melodies on this album feel like I've somehow heard them before, but I don't think that's it, they just flow together so naturally that it's hard to imagine no one's written them before. This basically applies to the entirety of The Silence.

 

Literally could not rank their albums, haha. The middle three would change every time. I'm ranking this first though

 

Song rankings after 6 listens.
Hold me to these

The Sunshine
The Wolf
The Gold
The Grocery
The Mistake
The Alien
The Silence
The Moth
The Maze
Lead, SD
The Parts

 

@Drew Beringer def here Radiohead in the sunshine. Nice call

 

This is the album that I always wanted to hear from them! Andy's voice is more beautiful than ever, production is fantastic, and it truly is epic and cinematic. Also very intimate - can't wait to listen more and dig in to the lyrics!

 

Rarely for me has something ever smashed my expectations so thoroughly. Like, I was so hyped for this, everyone on here was so hyped for this, and that made me even more hyped for this, and now that it's here it hasn't let me down in the slightest. In fact, it's better than I imagined it would be. Holy hell.

 

First listen, before I even read the review, I thought I had hit shuffle and my computer was playing "Paranoid Android" lol

 

First listen: This wowed me way too much for me to call it a grower, but I can already tell there are layers I need to pull back that are going to make this album so much more satisfying on repeated listens.

The Grocery immediately stikes me as one of the best things the band has ever put out.

Lead, SD is one of the most unnerving songs I've heard in awhile, but I like it a lot.

LOVE the chorus of The Wolf.

Also, love the sequencing of The Parts. It absolutely sounds like it belongs where it is to me. It's so cathartic in light of what's come before, and it got me even more pumped for The Silence, which is amazing.

 

That still hurts bro.

 

Comes from a place of love. Tbh I'd rather a band get better over their career than release that one great album early and never live up to it.

 

Excellent point. All is forgiven.

 

I haven't said I've had a favorite band in a long time - not since high school, when the Blue album, Pinkerton, and the Green album were the soundtrack to every single day of my life and I was a Weezer fanatic. As I got older and discovered more music, I just sort of had a top tier of bands lumped together - Jimmy Eat World and TBS and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones came next, and then Anberlin and The Classic Crime and the various projects of Josh Scogin in college, and then as an 'adult,' I discovered the Gaslight Anthem and Motion City Soundtrack and Manchester Orchestra and a few others. No one ever really stepped up and made themselves THE favorite band for me; there were specific records that blew me away and became part of my DNA, but no band. I love a lot of them, and depending on the day, I obsess over various ones.

I think, though, at this point ManOrch may have done enough to set themselves apart. I've legitimately liked every album better than the previous one - my album ranking for them is literally just Cope/Hope>Virgin. And Black Mile, upon the first couple listens, looks like it might, once again, take the poll position.

I think that at 33, I might have a favorite band for the first time since high school. I almost feel guilty about it, like Brian Fallon and Jim Adkins and Stephen Christian may be offended or something. But I don't know what else to say - this band has been blowing me away for nearly a decade now (and they've always been my favorite live show). I think it's time to just say out loud what's been true for awhile now: I love a lot of bands, but none more than Manchester Orchestra.