Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface (July 28, 2017) Album • Page 169

I listened to it with (admittedly mediocre) headphones to see if it was just my car's speakers and was equally underwhelmed.

To be fair, this album really /isn't/ about guitar, which is fine. It's just a bit of a shame coming from their previous Built to Spill worship.

 

All I will say is my car listens vs headphone listens have been night and day.

I'm sure you know this but a good pair of headphones pays for itself with each listen :)

 

I'll temper that bit of negativity with this: The Alien -> The Sunshine -> The Grocery is a really impressive suite of songs. Also, some of this really reminds me of some of the Black stuff from The Color Spectrum, which, hey, cool.

 

I'd just like to add that I too experienced the same thing on headphones, two different sets of nice speakers, and in my car (which is pretty decent sound for a car). I think it has more to do with the drums cutting through the mix, as I've noticed that in the big sections the drums can get a little drowned. In any case, it's a great record and sounds absolutely gorgeous in the quieter sections, but there is something off to me about the louder sections.

 

I thought this too. As a big MMJ fan, i hear it alot in the alien, the gtocery, & the mistake.

I know Andy is a big fan of theirs too. On the METN tour he wore an MMJ tshirt to the show i went to in CHI.

 

I think this sounds great no matter what I listen to it on. I've listened in my car, with headphones, and with studio monitors. This is one of the best produced albums I've ever heard. (Never thought I'd be able to say that about a MO album)

 

yeah, agreed on all counts

 

I've never gotten a tattoo and probably never will. Not a huge fan of them, but this tattoo looks really incredible man. Job well done.

If I ever got one it would be a tiny MO related one, but I'd be deathly afraid they'd pull a Wilder Mind or something and make me regret it.

 

Is it a ticket to the moon hammock?

 

What I wouldn't give to throw up my ENO on top of a mountain, hang my Chacos off the side from a carabiner, and listen to this album looking up at the night sky.

 

Looks incredible!

 

I finally got to do a full listen through yesterday while mowing the lawn. Even on the cheapest headphones I could find at Wal-Mart (a child or a dog broke my skullcandy headphones and times are lean) this album sounded pretty amazing. In fairness though, I had already listened to almost all of it in bits and pieces on decent speakers so I knew more what the songs were meant to sound like.

Also, that Black Mile tattoo came out amazing. Incredible work.

 

That was me dawg. Let's party.

I think I've listened to this enough times to do a ranking now.

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

 

wild to see all the varied song rankings on here. i think the only trending consensus is that everyone loves the grocery and i'm not even a huge fan of that song until the latter half...

 

Love how they play with structure in that song, every verse they add another part

 

I am noticing how much i like parts that are loud in one part of the song, then soft in a different part. examples: first chorus of the gold compared to the second chorus. They do it again in the wolf when the instruments drop out, and i think there's another place too, but that's a cool way to bring familiarity to the melody but still keep the song fresh.

(i know this isnt some mindblowing new approach to music, i just think theyve done it really well here.)

 

Am I the only one who gets a Circa Survive vibe from The Moth?

 

Nothing gets me more pumped than when the first chorus of Lead, SD plays. So much energy out of nowhere.

 

They do all 3 chorus refrains of the mistake differently too,

First time no drums just synth and vocals
Second time, drums synth bass
Third time, drums synth bass guitar with drums switching to 16ths on the high hat

 

Eh, I don't know. I can kind of see where you're coming from, but I can't imagine a song like The Moth on any Circa record.

I do love your username/avatar by the way. They're my favorite band of all time.

 

Yes, thank you! I said the same thing when the song released and no one liked my comment making me feel all alone in the world.

 

Thanks for all the tattoo compliments! Came out even better than I expected. Love the texturing the artist did for the leaves.

Caught my girlfriend singing The Sunshine this morning. Good times.

 

Whoever did your tattoo did a really good job on it! Looks great as a tattoo as well!

 

so do we really think that is scissors falling from the child's hand? i really think it is just a branch.

 

I see it as a couple of separate branches falling at the same time