The Wonder Years - Sister Cities (April 6, 2018) Album • Page 174

And one I can’t help but hope they explore more in the future. That and the softer tracks on this album are some of my favorite things this band has done.

 

That’s basically what Burst and Decay is haha.

 

I mean of the new songs.

 

This.

Is a great fuckin album.

 

I think this album might denthrone MANI A as my aoty so far

 

oh hey Ace wheres that new TEN record huh

ya that version is awesome and if this band decided to do an album a la The Mother by TEN i would 100% be all about it.

 

This entire album is amazing. Been with TWY since right before The Upsides, so proud of how they have grown as artists.

 

This keeps growing on me. Truly delicious.

 

Anyone got a link to stream the alternate version of "Ghosts of Right Now"? Kinda salty about the whole thing because I bought it at best buy before I realized target had a bonus song and alt cover art.

 

I find this band strange in that I feel like I should absolutely love them but something holds me back. I don't know what it is but listening to them for any stretch gives me a real headache, like it all sounds too full somehow and quickly exhausts me. It's difficult to describe.

 

That's exactly how I feel about Manchester Orchestra!

 

I want a record from this band filled with songs like The Ghosts Of Right Now.

That is some of the best singing I've heard Dan do in his high register.

 

On first listen, I didn't like this much, but I haven't been able to stop listening to it yesterday and today.

 

me with circa unfortunately

 

I was the same, but it's honestly grown on me a lot already.

 

Had to go to two different Targets to find a copy. They were sold out. I am so happy for this band, I could honestly cry.

 

No wonder I couldn't find anything.

 

I really like how on this album, there are moments that sound like it's building up to something heavy but ends up being something soft/softer and more melodic than the previous passage of music.

 

The end of “Flowers” does this so well. I was ready for the usual loud ending to a quiet song thing, then it goes right back down after that buildup.

 

I think it's that song most of all that encapsulates their growth since even TGG - they'd never have tried to get away with a (sorry) flowery orchestral coda back then, not to mention a bunch of little flourishes over the course of the song like the glockenspiel in the second verse. Can you imagine them playing that song with a setup like they had at the Puerto Rico benefit shows???? :o

 

Listened to No Close to Heaven today, and it reinforced how much more expanded this album is. Even the bigger rock songs like Ghosts and Orange Grove are really different.

 

TGG was a fantastic pop punk album and possibly the best of its era (within that genre) imo but they've gone past that now and have released an awesome set of songs that exist outside of their previous confines. I feel real proud of these boys rn and I hope y'all do too

 

They basically confirmed at the pop-up last night that he's going to be doing that live. They were talking about their favorite songs to perform live, and Dan mentioned how he thinks Josh is really going to like performing Lightning live because he will have a big part in the vocals.

 

Coming back from 48 hours in Philly attending the pop-ups and exploring the city, so I have a lot to unpack here.

Just some thoughts and observations from attending the pop-up shop both days and doing both pop-up performances:

On the actual performances:
- Dan kept talking about how weird it is to debut 3 new songs in a live setting that's acoustic, because the songs that were performed (Sister Cities, Pyramids, Ghost of Right Now) aren't meant to be presented as such. They all sounded fantastic, and I cannot wait to see how they translate in a full-band, packed club environment. Pyramids gave me the chills live and was very powerful - Nick played keyboard parts that really set an "environment" (for lack of a better term) and really gave the song some depth. Ghosts was performed as the "burst and decay" version" and was very, very solid.
- Night two (which was on release day) was more packed than night one even though both were "sold out" in the same venue. Seemed like there were more family / friends /music-industry professionals in attendance as well.
- The 2 poems read in the performance really helped round everything out. They can be found in the book and I definitely recommend checking them out. They carried the overall concept of the record based through specific incidences, and really helped you get into Dan's mindset when he was coming up with the concept for the album. There's one about scenes of witnessing people or interacting with people and becoming connected even through cultural or physical differences, (it mentions interacting with a little boy and his father at a baseball game in Japan, if you wanted to hunt down the poem in the book) that really got the whole overarching theme of the album to click with me, and gave me better insight to the lyrical content. Plus, the poem is just really fucking good.

On the Q&A:
- I personally enjoyed the Q&A more on night two just because the questions selected were a bit more serious about the content of the album. Someone on the first night asked what "the ocean" was referring in The Ocean Grew Hands To Hold Me, and hearing Dan pull the mic closer and go "Well the ocean is referring to...the ocean" was just priceless.
- On the first night, someone asked a question about if the songs were about specific cities and how the cities tied into the album, and I really enjoyed hearing the band talking about it because it really completed the concept of the album to me. Now when I listen to the album, it clicks.
- If a recording of either Q&A pops up, I definitely recommend watching it. Hearing the band's mindset behind the content and concepts really made me view the record in a different light and feel more connected to it as not only a record, but a concept.
- You can tell how passionate the whole band is about the album based on how they answered the questions, and that was so great to witness. I've attended a couple Q&A's with TWY over the last few years, and none of them really captured the essence of their current music like this one.
- If anyone has any questions about stuff covered in either Q&A, don't hesitate to ask, I'll do my best to answer

On the album:
The record is incredible. So much more than I could have ever imagined a follow-up to NCTH would be. My favorites so far on the record are The Orange Grove, We Look Like Lightning, and Pyramids of Salt. I'm so glad I went to the pop-up performances because it really closed the gaps for me, both by listening to what the band had to say on the record and by seeing the artwork / photographs / poems that helped to shape this record. I really don't think I have a least favorite song on this album, or one that I would skip. Lyrically, I think this houses some of the strongest, most hard-hitting lyrics the band has ever written, and I'm a much bigger fan of Dan's delivery of these lyrics than on NCTH. In terms of the tour, I would love to see SC, Pyramids, Orange Grove, Lightning, and Kyoto live, I feel like all of these would be absolutely monstrous.

Sorry for the book, I just needed to collect my thoughts and emotions.

EDIT: Also, in case anyone was wondering, those We Look Like Lightning 7" records were randomly sent and only 100 were pressed. I know people were wondering about the pressing total, and the band confirmed it at the pop-up.

 

I saw the billboard today

Was cool