Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God (April 30, 2021) Album • Page 215

they’re pretty long dude. I’d be impressed

 

I just can't wrap my head around liking the rest of the album but strongly disliking "I've Got Friends"... It's such a great song.

I just fucking blasted METN + "Go" + the Fourteen Years of Excellence EP on my ride into work today and the whole run is absolutely stellar. Not a bad song in that whole mix.

 

Jimmy he whispers is so good.

 

The keyboard just kills it for me.

I also can’t get over hearing it on a blown out PA in a closet of a venue right after METN came out. Plus it was the first song to really get them over to a pseudo-mainstream audience, so I heard it a lot in those days.

 

I’ve Got Friends kicks so much ass

 

I had honestly completely forgotten about the silly-sounding intro to the song until my listen today. I can see now how that might rub you the wrong way. It's definitely odd, but it never bugged me and I thought it was fun.

 

Looks like May 12th will be a happy day in my household

 

My record also finally emerged from Hell Valley

 

It’s a song built on layers. It’s just another layer. Be glad the the band didn’t abandon the rock sound like so many others did in favour on synthy sounds.

 

Got a little Sean on the way?

 

I still remember the first time I heard I've Got Friends. Incredible song.

 

how did you know i nicknamed my MMOG vinyl ‘little Sean”

 

The second verse of I've Got Friends is one of my favorite moments in music, full stop.

 

Because of the dozen other things that you refer to as little Sean

 

i hope when live shows become a thing again, and the band plays Bed Head, the crowd shouts, and carries on,"Now I believe in the ghost" during the part where it cuts out in the second chorus and Andy comes in. I feel like it would be such an incredible crowd participation moment

 

My vinyl is still in fox valley

 

its where its meant to be. you need to let go.

 

maybe you should be in fox valley, ever think of that, loser

 

So long as we don't have to sacrifice "Alcohol, dirty malls, Pensacola, Florida bars" for it, I'm in

 

$100 is the worst song in their catalog. Also what the fuck does "I felt a black man in my teeth" even mean?

 

Well. At least he changed the title.

it was originally ‘Black Man’.

 

Tyson biting Holyfield?

 

Spotify notes from each song:

Inaudible: The first version of this song dates back to 2016. Robert was working on an instrumental track using all the keyboards we had in the studio. I heard the song after being out of town and knew something was special about it. The writing of the song wasn't actually finished until late 2019. It always felt like the intro to the album, and when I showed it to Ethan and Catherine, they agreed.

Angel of Death: "Angel of Death" is definitely a scene setter for the album. We worked on three different versions of this song before we landed on the finished product. Even on its earliest demo, we knew there was something special about the the third chorus.

Keel Timing: "Keel Timing" came from a riff that I was inspired to write after watching Atoms for Peace perform live. We loved the challenge of patience. Let the listener sit in the groove for an extended period of time. I find this song meditative, even if it ends in chaos.

Bed Head: "Bed Head" was one of the first full band songs we figured out for the album. It originally started off as a very slow electronic song. It wasn't until we ran Tim's electric drums through an old blood noise fuzz pedal that the identity of the production started to take shape. In 2018, Rob and I played "Bed Head" for Catherine in her hotel room in LA. We were there to play a Bad Books show and she was working with Alanis. I think we made a deal that night that we all wanted to work together again on LP6.

Annie: At one point "Annie" sounded like a cocaine fueled bank heist. We slowed it down, stripped away the frantic nature, and settled into this meditative repetition. I enjoyed trading and sharing melodies throughout the record. Pro tip: the verse melody is the same melody for the 2nd half of "Angel of Death".

Telepath: This song sort of fell out of my brain instantly. When I showed it to the band they treated it with a ton of space and didn't try to walk all over it. I had been dealing with some less than ideal news. So I wrote the guitar part and the words came out incredibly fast. It felt a bit like cheating, but everyone I played the song for had a really lovely reaction to it. It feels like a real beginning to the relational tones of Side B.

Let it Storm: The sonics of this song were really hard to figure out for quite a long time. It started as a pretty simple folk song that we tried playing in just about every genre we knew how. For a while it sounded like Neil Young, then it started sounding like Elliott Smith but not nearly as cool as either of those guys,. I asked Ethan to help sort an electronic loop to play alongside the acoustic drums. He created this beat that was in the key of the song. We then went in and programmed the notes to go along with the chord changes.

Dinosaur: I wrote the general idea of this song before a pop song writing session in LA. Robert and I were both doing separate sessions but were staying at the same house. He heard me messing around with it and encouraged me to bring it to the band. This song has sounded like a lot of different things in its lifespan. It continued to evolve while recording it live, making changes on the spot. The sonic identity of this song while in the studio turned out to be a real compass for the sounds I wanted to incorporate throughout the album.

Obstacle: I wrote this song the night before my son was born. We were living with an upcoming loss in our family. The idea that innocence was being born while a life was ending felt so strange and worth investigating emotionally. I love what the band does in this song. The way Tim and Andy Prince play off each other makes a "musically Nick Drake inspired" acoustic song turn into something more vital and purposeful than it sat as a solo tune. I loved finally sorting this bridge out with Ethan, Rob and Catherine in LA. The guitar and the vocal matching it made us throw our hand up in when we heard it back. (there has to be a typo there, but that's what it says)

Way Back: I remember the 1st time we played this song as a band at the cabin. It was essentially finished. The way we locked in and played together so softly felt like we tapped into something special. In the original demo, you can actually hear the fire wood in the room crackling. It was such a great moment captured intentionally poorly with one microphone. We figured if it sounds like this now, then there's no way it won't sound incredible multi-tracked.

The Internet: Just as "Inaudible" always felt like the opener, I knew this song should close the album. I loved the tie back to our last album by putting a "the" in front of the name. This is one of many songs on the the album that features samples from my daughter. The ending of this song was a trip to figure out - we added and subtracted so many sections. Rob and I finally had a light bulb moment one night at Ethan Gruska's kitchen table. he came out to get some water at 1AM and thought we were insane for intensely discussing this song so late into the night, but he's insane too, so he loved it.