The Wonder Years - The Hum Goes On Forever (Sept 23rd 2022) Album • Page 47

My grandfather who I lived with till I was 15 and who loved to garden died today so let me tell you, I didn’t need Laura And The Beehive today.

 

sorry for your loss, that really sucks. TWY always seem to know when we're going through it and plan their releases accordingly. it's eerie!

 

My record should be here any moment. Local record store came through again. Prepared to be destroyed. Gonna play the vinyl first, then get in a good listen with headphones tonight.

 

I stopped after Wyatt’s song got released, so hearing Old Friends for the first time has me ready to run through a wall.

 

Wow, what a record

 

My close friend died shortly before Cardinals came out. Needless to say hearing Cardinals II on what would’ve been his birthday was cathartic and special. The universe, man

 

I disagree this sounds like the last 2 albums never existed. I think it takes what works best on those and brings it to their pop-punk sound they essentially perfected on TGG. I mean the vocal melody on "Doors" draws almost directly from "Flowers . . ." on Sister Cities, there's a literal sequel to a song from NCTH, the heaviness of "Songs About Death" feels like a growth from some of the heavier stuff on the last 2, and musically "Laura" is closer to the ballads on the last 2 than anything before.

 

I can hear bits and pieces of TGG, NCTH and SC throughout this record. It’s a record that sounds like The Wonder Years and I feel like I needed that in 2022.

No issue with the sequencing here either

 

How is the closer? I feel like they traditionally have great album closers, going as far back as All My Friends Are in Bar Bands. Only one I don't care for is No Closer to Heaven

edit: I should mention I have made it a point to not listen to any of the songs released up until this point so I can go in fresh.

 

could be their best song. did a lot of thinking about it and it's at LEAST up there

 

Fair enough, it certainly has some of the new wrinkles in their sound that they experimented with on the last two, but I guess what I mean is I find them much more seamlessly integrated this time around. If you told me this was the follow up to TGG I wouldn’t bat an eye, it sounds like a natural progression.

 

Yeah this closer could be their best song flat out

 

I get that, but if they made the leap from TGG (which I think is far and away their best album) to stuff like "Cardinals II", "Songs About Death", and "Laura & the Beehive", I would be absolutely floored.

But at the same time I guess that leap is not too far off from the jump they made from Upsides/Suburbia which I find all but unlistenable to TGG.

 

Man, I think that about TGG lol

 

Some of the songs on those albums are very good - I love the Burst & Decay versions of them - but the performances are, by and large,

 

I held off after Wyatt's song too and that breakdown at the end of Low Tide is sooooo killer

 

Yeah, I think I'm comfortable saying this is their best closer of all. I told my wife if they don't release anything ever again I think I'd be content that this is where it ends.

I wish I hadn't heard Old Friends because it didn't feel as impactful as a penultimate track to me as when I think back to hearing Cul-De-Sac/Funeral, or even Hoodie Weather/And Now I'm Nothing back to back for the first time. Might not be a sequencing issue, more of a "user-error" by listening to it as a single.

 

Suburbia is by far my favourite, TGG my least. I dropped off these guys heavily with TGG until Sister Cities.

 

That seems crazy to me, haha. I am not at all a fan of Dan's voice on Upsides or Suburbia and the band is consistently doing way too much, there's no room for those songs to just be.

 

Oh man, now I'm excited. I love Funeral as the closer on TGG so pumped for this now

 

Laura and the Beehive should come with a fucking warning, Jesus Christ, Dan.

My grandmother who I lived with from the time I was born until I was like 4-5 passed away at the end of 2020 right before Christmas in a nursing home unable to have visitors because of Covid and I still haven’t really processed it I don’t think.

I almost fucking drove off the road today when that came on during my first listen.

 

Another quick thought on Reason...

Does the falsetto melody in the first few verses remind anybody else of Stick By Me by Bright and Early?

 

I’ve got 2 more songs to go, but Jesus Christ Laura and the Beehive is on another level.

 

This record is unreal. Totally understand the way Soupy has been hyping it up. My god.

 

Thought this would be a masterpiece, but never expected THIS. Beehive just hits in a way I'm not sure I song ever has for me.