The Lawrence Arms - Skeleton Coast (July 17, 2020) Album • Page 4

This is going to fall into the top 3 for me right behind Greatest Story and Oh Calcutta, without question

 

Hard to even rank for me:

Apathy/Calcutta
Greatest Story
Metropole/Skeleton Coast
Ghost Stories
Guided Tour of Chicago

The top 5 genuinely will alternate depending on mood. Putting Metropole and Skeleton Coast at 4/5 seems low given how much I love Metropole and am loving Skeleton Coast thus far, but it's hard to replace any of the top 3.

If we're ranking side/solo stuff:

Unicornography
Four Five One Two
I'd Rather Die
Gather Up The Chaps
Keep Walkin' Pal
We Chase the Waves
Neon Fiction

Funny -- I'm more of a BK guy when it comes to side stuff but I think my top 10 TLA songs skew towards Chris 6/4.

 

Not sure why anyone cares, but I’m trying to do this slowly so I don’t just have knee-jerk reactions:

“Oh! Calcutta!’ is totally fine, but not something that’s really resonating with me or sticking. I don’t dislike it, but if that had been my introduction to the band, I may not have ever listened again.

‘Metropole’ is a 10/10. It definitely reminds me of the Gaslight Anthem some, which is always a good things since they’re the greatest band in the world. But mainly, it just stands out as something that has a lot of elements of other stuff I like, but comes together as its own thing. I absolutely love it.

‘Skeleton Coast’ keeps getting better and better with each lesson and remains a contender for AOTY.

Discovering this band has been a really great, random thing this past week. I think at least those two records will be ones that are with me for years, and there’s more to check out!

 

Based on this you'll probably love Greatest Story as well

Oh Calcutta was my introduction to the band and definitely remains my favorite with Metropole and Greatest Story very close behind

 

Did you get to Greatest Story Ever Told yet?

 

It's probably recency bias but I'm almost ready to put Skeleton Coast at #2 behind Apathy. I think it's that good right off the bat.

 

The Greatest Story Ever Told is next! I’m trying to resist just plowing through the discography and then it blurring together.

 

Very stoked for this

 

Looking forward to this as well!

 

I feel like I should like Greatest Story, but I don't really. For me the last three albums (and the EP) are the best. They have just improved so much from O!C! onwards (IMO). Understand if people who were on the ride from the start have emotional attachments to the older albums though

 

What was the first album you got into by them? I remember I got Apathy and Exhaustion and liked it and was loosely paying attention when Greatest Story was about to come out. When it did, it blew me away how much they grew and I’ve been hooked since. It separated them from some of the standard Fat Wreck sound at the time.

 

Was Metropole for me. A friend of mine who has been a big fan for a long time loves the older stuff but gave it a few listens and couldn't get into it bar the odd song or two (100 Resolutions, Are you there Margaret?) Then with Metropole I feel like they jumped forward light-years.

Metropole for me is lyrically fantastic (in this regard better than Skeleton Coast too), especially Brendan's songs. From there I went back and O!C! grew on me a fair bit, but compared to how good they sound now, the older stuff (Greatest Story, Apathy) feels way less complete and well-rounded like the newer songs do. Metropole sounds like them at their very, very best in every aspect. Also Chris's vocals are so more listenable now, so much crisper.

 

I really like the vocal effect in How to Rot

 

I once got to see The Lawrence Arms, The Falcon, and Sundowner all perform in the same night and it was glorious.

 

Very jealous.

 

You were at the Taco Bell tour!

 

Forgot this came out and have finally worked my way around to it. It's good!

 

Lawrence Arms doing holiday livestream w/ mems of Rise Against, Alkaline Trio, Gaslight Anthem, more

 

Well, this finally clicked with me.

It'd been the only Larry Arms album I'd had trouble getting into. Seems to rank pretty highly now, though.

 

Was listening to The Menzingers earlier and it made me revisit this album. It's still very good. I love Chris' take on vocal melodies a lot.

The Menzingers have always reminded me of these guys, Gaslight Anthem, and The Replacements. Much love to this style and genre.