Mandy Moore - In Real Life (May 13, 2022) Album • Page 2

four moons is so good

 

This album is an absolute delight, really enjoying it

 

I really adore this. She’s found her sweet spot for sure

 

there's a couple songs i'll definitely go back to regularly

 

not to take away from mandy, and it’s obviously her show, but man the session people killed it

it’s an electric 2022 joni album

 

100%. Sent @cshadows2887 a text last night that just said "Griffin did what he had to do"

 

Not sure if it’s the Dawes presence, the tv star factor, or the remnants of her 2000s pop career, but the cheese is laid on like 10% too thick for me on a few of the songs. Otherwise this is pretty fantastic, I will be recommending it to all of my open minded friends in the coming weeks.

 

i don’t really think of dawes as that cheesy on their own. i think the idea of any husband and wife duo type thing inherently has a bit of cheese though. i agree generally, but i still like the album

 

Legitimately the stupidest fucking thing I’ve read on this site. Good lord.

 

I feel like we listened to two different records

 

Cheesy is the dumbest fucking adjective you can apply to music. Literally objectively meaningless.

Even if it meant something, Dawes isn’t cheesy.

She was a singer before she was ever on TV.

There’s no trace of her pop era on here at all.

Pat either admit that was a stupid add on to a stupid post or delete all your Talking Heads records.

It’s like this site needs an intellectual lifeguard sometimes so everyone doesn’t drown in the goddamn shallow end

 

I personally adore the love songs that Mandy and Taylor write to each other. Seeing them so happy is awesome, especially after what Mandy went through with her first marriage. If that's cheesy, then I like cheesy things.

 

Dawes is like my favorite band but Dawes is cheesy sometimes (this record is not).

 

Was just talking about how this album feels like a celebration of finding joy after/within trauma and how comforting and warm it is. Feels like a very hopeful record.

 

Wow that’s a lot of vitriol for what was honestly a B+ review! I think this record is great haha (and also fwiw I am not on the husband and wife duo is inherently cornball train). I've also been a Mandy fan since Candy came out when I was in 5th grade, which doesn't say much other than don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for her here.

But if I can defend my take a bit, cheese is an adjective with meaning even if it isn't always pejorative. Dawes is a great band, I like them a lot, but cheese is absolutely a tool in their arsenal.

That's cheesy! (As is "I hope that life without a chaperone is what you thought it'd be/I hope your brother's El Camino runs forever/I hope the world sees the same person that you've always been to me/And may all your favorite bands stay together.") And I think those are all great lyrics and love both of those songs!

Anyways, back to this record: a more substantive way of putting what I meant is that there's some incredible songwriting here - in particular Four Moons and the title track. But there are also a couple moments like this:

Which are fine, but feel a bit more simplistic than some of the better songs on the record and share some of that earnestness I might dare call cheesy in the Dawes lyrics. And I think sonically there is a ton to love on this record, but a few moments I don't recall specifically after one listen but would have called a little bit songwriter pop by the numbers. 4 songs in I was ready to shout about it being my favorite record of yesterday, and by the end I still felt mostly as positive but a little more objective.

tl,dr: cheese is real, In Real Life is an 8.5/10 record, I'm excited to finally see her live in June. Sorry!

 

what? i didn’t make the original post lol

 

i like this album? and said i didn’t find dawes cheesy? legitimately confused lol

 

Dude you said husband and wife teams are cheesy. I should throw an LP of I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight at you. lol

 

i love plenty of husband and wife duos. as you, yourself, said - there is nothing wrong with music that has a bit of cheese to it. cheese can be good! idk why you took it so negatively lol

 

Sigh. Sorry for the vitriol. Just getting out of a week of Covid isolation and have a short fuse. I still think the sentiments were stupid. But I’m not, like, mad at anyone

Literally nobody uses cheesy as value neutral though. It’s always at least mildly pejorative

 

Also the dumbest adjective you can apply to music is "vibey." Literally means nothing.

 

You’ve never been in the vibe then. You gotta get in the vibe man.

 

I'll call something a "vibe record" if it's more sound than songs, but I might be too old to know what "vibey" means

 

im confused again lol. i cntrl+f'd the last page and "vibe" - in any form - didn't come up once. are y'all inventing a guy?

 

Maybe I define "cheesy" differently than all of you, but I don't find those Dawes lyrics remotely worthy of the description. They're wry and funny and earnest and poignant all at the same time, in that very John Prine way. Nothing cheesy about that.