Anberlin Band • Page 131

What they were doing on Velvet Covered Brick and Stranger Ways, I need more of it.

 

Love seeing other people say good things about Dark is the Way & Lowborn.

Honestly, Vital might be, like, #5 for me? Below Cities, Lowborn, Dark, & Friendship. Though, I can enjoy any of 'em if they're on, even if I don't really choose half of 'em most of the time. Even New Surrender, probably my least favorite, has some good stuff; I remember listening to it a lot & defending it when it came out.

 

Good band is pretty consistently good with a couple of great records

 

Dark is pretty underrated IMO. It’s one I listen to A LOT.

 

Thanks!

 

Was thinking about Anberlin and Acceptance going on tour together both supporting new albums. Granted, if Christian was willing to pull double duty and if touring is ever a thing again.

A man can dream.

 

I’d travel far and wide for this, but I doubt it would happen. Maybe a show or two, but I’m not holding my breath

 

I also love seeing Dark and Lowborn getting praised. They fall into that middle ground where they're not usually as revered as Cities, NTFP, and Vital, but they're not considered "lower-tier" as often as NS or Blueprints.

I think I've said this a hundred times in here, but I think Lowborn is a masterpiece. I would have been more than happy for them to end on that note. The fact that we're getting another record is amazing, but I hope fans start to give Lowborn its fair share of praise in retrospect. I think it felt too unconventional for some at the time, but maybe it'll be looked back on more fondly if we get another "normal" Anberlin record.

 

Lowborn was everything I wanted from them when it came out. I definitely hope they get weirder with this new album instead of veering back toward their “normal” sound.

 

There isn’t a song on Lowborn I don’t at least like. Most of them I love. It’s aged very nicely for me.

 

The talk about the different albums is definitely interesting. Having been a fan of the band from essentially day one, it wasn’t until after they broke up that people seemed to single out NTFP and Cities; just looking at charts on Wikipedia, it appears that their highest charting album was Dark (#9) which had a big hit in Impossible. Cities was #19, NS was #13, Vital was #16, and Lowborn #10. And of course their massive mega-hit that Stephen has said kept them going was off New Surrender. I think during their career, all those albums were basically seen as equally successful.

Personally, I think the three Tooth and Nail albums are all pretty same-y. I love them, but they showed way more growth after they left, and if I make a playlist of their T&N career VS Post career, I choose the one off T&N 10 times out of 10.

I think if I had to choose one Anberlin album to listen to for the rest of my life, it’s probably New Surrender. But Stephen has also said he hates that album, so I’m pretty sure I’m just in a different place as the band at this point.

 

I didn't mean "normal" in a negative sense. At this point, a record in the vein of NTFP would have 10+ years of growth behind it and still be different and more mature. That's something I'd be interested in hearing, although weirder would be great too. I'd bet on a nice mixture of both which would probably be best case scenario anyway.

 

That's interesting. I thought Cities and NTFP had been revered since they were released. Both have been genre classics since before the band broke up. By fan consensus, I always felt NS was seen as a slight misstep by fans, Dark was a minor return to form, and Vital was where they found their footing again. I don't necessarily agree with that. But the chart performances and financial success of Anberlin's records haven't reflected general fan opinion IMO.

 

Agree with @Lucas27. Yeah, I wouldn’t judge the chart positions as a reflection of popularity at the time. NTFP and particularly Cities were revered in this scene as they were released at the time. Doesn’t mean they sold the most. ‘Feel Good Drag’ as the New Surrender single elevated their reach to a wider audience, which could be why they seem to have higher chart positions later.

But I obviously don’t dispute that you prefer the post-T&N era. It’s such an extensive back catalogue that there is something for everything. Glad you like NS - a great album.

 

The complaint that I do agree with concerning Lowborn is the weird sequencing, which can be explained by the unusual writing process. It's not a very satisfying listen front to back.

 

I get this, but I feel very differently. It’s strangely very cohesive to me and a terrific front-to-back listen. I’m not sure I can put a finger on why I feel that way...I think it’s because every song has this epic sense of finality to it. They’re all so different from each other, but they all feel like final album songs if that makes sense.

 

also- Cities debuting at 19 was huuuge for them back then. There was such a great energy around the band before its release.
I remember seeing them on the first tour after they released it at a tiny club in Boston (RIP Axis!) and the room just exploded for them during the cities songs. You could tell big things were coming for them.

 

Also- dear lord my post is worded terribly. I need these stay at home regulations lifted, lol.

 

I’m not arguing that NTFP and Cities aren’t classic albums or whatever. I guess I just wonder what it even means to be a ‘scene classic.’ I saw Anberlin back in 2007, and they played songs off both albums... and they weren’t even main support for the headliner (headline was Hawthorne Heights, Emery main support). Were they amazing? Of course! They were one of my favorite bands then and still are. But it didn’t seem like during that era that those records were revered in some amazing way. And aside from the other albums all charting well, Stephen has said that they would have broken up/not been able to go on without FGD being so big. That doesn’t really match with the way people talk now about the albums before that single.

I guess the larger point is that I wish more fans now could appreciate their work after Cities, like it seems like people did at the time. I wish they could be seen as more than just a mid-2000s nostalgia act by a lot of folks. And I especially wish that live they skewed more towards ‘newer’ songs because there are just so many awesome songs on those albums.

 

Realizing as I got older that anberlin weren’t one of everybody’s favorite bands was absolutely bonkers to me. Still is.

 

I feel like NTFP and Cities might not have been big in the general sense at the time of their release (they didn’t have the mainstream appeal that the re-release of Feel Good Drag brought about), but fans of this “scene” adored both albums and I’d hazard a guess that those albums were super influential to other bands coming up in that genre of music at the time.

 

I do not like dark at all

 

Yeah, given they've released live albums for NTFP and Cities, and played a number of live album shows for both, I'd love to see them step away from having to favor those albums so much at shows and do newer stuff. It moves them closer to being a nostalgia act and they have far too many amazing newer songs to allow that to happen.

 

Really? I feel like it’s a very well sequenced album.

 

With you there!