The Wonder Years Band • Page 10

1. Washington Square Park
2. Came Out Swinging
3. I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral
4. Cigarettes & Saints
5. I Was Scared & I'm Sorry

 

Having a kinda shitty day and turned on The Upsides for the first time in YEARS and this record just always makes me feel better.

 

i just interviewed Soupy and he said he was doing Aaron West stuff today but has had a bit of trouble with the timeline of the story. he also said a new TWY album won't come out until "very late in 2017 or most likely 2018" because of all the touring.

my show is in less than three weeks and i'll scream my lungs and cry my eyes out. can't wait.

 

Fall Tour should be cool. I wonder what they'll be doing at the beginning of 2017 since they can't record then

 

I would completely content if TWY never released another album. I love what they put out up to No Closer To Heaven. Not really big on that one.

 

Revisited NCTH the other day, liked it more than I remembered. Still only into like half of it tho

 

Did a re-listen to NCTH today... still not good. Cigarettes & Saints might be their best song though, no idea what they were doing for the rest of the album.

 

That and I think Cardinals is notable song in NCTH

 

That was a pretty meh song to me originally and still is. That said... still near the top of the album.

 

I'll say it. NCTH is my favorite album they've ever made. I still listen to it everyday.

 

Oh completely forgot about Palm Reader. That is higher up than Cardinals for me lol

 

I think my favorite songs are Cigarettes and Saints, You in January, and Palm Reader. Those are decent. The rest aren't

 

Real question, what is it you guys don't like about it?

 

I think the production's terrible, his voice gets really tiring to listen to, a large majority of the melodies aren't well written or memorable, and the central theme is pretty half assed and doesn't do a good job unifying the album. Similarly to that last point, I feel like the album's trying so hard to be meaningful and important, and the entire thing feels so forced and not earned. Every song basically follows the same formula of start soft and get louder, it's super repetitive and they don't do it in a way that's interesting at all.

And ultimately, they just didn't progress their sound at all; these songs are mostly weaker versions of what's on TGG.

 

The production is pretty bad. That aside, I couldn't disagree more on the themes on the album. I thought they were integrated so well! I can think of a few points where it may come of as trying to be important (perticularily the last song). But thanks for the reply and I can certainly see how those are valid points!

 

@Turkeylegz :Right there mainly for me. It feels like it's trying too hard to force the heavier subject matter that literally weighs down the album and makes his vocals seem more grating for it. I would say though I enjoyed it for a good bit in September till about November.

 

I don't really see the idea of "no closer to heaven" integrated throughout the album until that last song. When the album starts, you think the rallying cry for the entire thing is going to be "we're no saviors if we can't save our brothers" and then they just abandon that after track 5. It's a mess, which is so weird to me because I think they mostly succeeded in making album length statements three times prior to NCTH.

 

I also think their lyrics suffer when they try turning outward rather than focusing on the personal, which is very evident on songs like I Won't Say the Lord's Prayer and much of this album. Overall, I think they had major growing pains with this album, both lyrically and in their (mostly unsuccessful, imo) attempted musical shift to a more dynamic rock sound.

 

They progressed pretty well and the themes of the album are great and handled well

 

I mean, I explained why I don't think those things are true, so that's all I have on it.

 

And I explained why I do, still friends?

 

Hmm I'll have to think about that one

 

Fuck I'd rather have you as a friend than TWY

 

I actually haven't really defended my position so I'll do that now

I just don't understand why some bands are praised for consistency and TWY are criticized for it. I also genuinely don't think the band that wrote The Upsides or even TGG could've written the songs on this album. Yes, there are some staple TWY energetic rock songs on here, but there's also curveballs likes Cigarettes and You In January and Stained Glads Ceilings and the closer. That's really all I ask for when a band progresses, mixing things up enough to keep me interested but still retain the reasons I loved them dearly. I think the expansion of topics covered is another great progression, the themes of death and losing someone who trusted you and becoming a better person in a toxic environment are handled very well in my opinion. I don't expect them to jump into a new genre or do something gimicky to hide under the veil of progression. The use of new tunings, different chords and song structures, a good range of song topics, and a fairly well handled, much darker theme all fill like good enough evidence to mark this as a good progression and a really excellent album. Not to mention how fucking cathartically relatable Dans lyrics are, which I understand is the most subjective thing I've listed so far and I totally understand if they don't grab you, but god damn do they do wonders for me.

I will agree on one point: the production isn't the great. Unfortunately, I think it's a Will Yip situation in that the band are such good friends with Steve and he's basically a 7th member that I doubt they'll leave him anytime soon.

 

In my opinion, the album is a love letter to a dead friend. I think that "we're no saviors if we can't save our brothers" is the theme of the album coupled with death. I believe this is the same friend in "Cul-de-Sac" who's "all alone on some bullshit, pill-bottle vision quest".
Despite some questionable track order, I think I Wanted So Badly to Be Brave is about the friend getting kicked out of his home as a child which leads to the evidential drug addiction. I think one of my absolute favorite moment in the album is the connection between that song and "Cigarettes and Saints". In IWSBtBB, it reflects on their childhood games ("We charged headfirst into the woods with bows and arrows drawn.../We swore ourselves protectors from all the evil in the world" and In Cigarettes and Saints, Soupy tries to protect that friend and I love the line "You’d tell me it was your fault. I should put all my arrows away". The interconnectivity between songs and albums is what makes me love The Wonder Years and I really think they do it in fine form on No Closer to Heaven and can't wait for what's next!
By the way, this is not an attack on anyone who doesn't like the album. I can't tell anyone what to like and all the points made are valid. I am just geeking out and could probably write pages on TWY because I am such a nerd haha.