The Wonder Years - The Hum Goes On Forever (Sept 23rd 2022) Album • Page 74

I have barely listened to anything else since this came out. Obsessed with this album.

 

been thinking a lot about this album’s sequencing and i think Old Friends -> Cardinals II -> Songs About Death would be such a sick centerpiece for the record. im thinking like tracks 4-6. it would also allow Beehive to go directly into You’re The Reason which sounds very appealing to me

with Cardinals II and SAD in the middle, I think you could cut Summer Clothes (im sorry, but i really dont like this song at all). maybe put Paris after Wyatt’s Song and Oldest Daughter later in the tracklisting? idk

edit: need to test it but like,

doors
wyatt
paris
old friends
cardinals ii
songs abt death
low tide
oldest daughter
lost it in the lights
laura
you’re the reason

 

I like Summer Clothes. Seems I might be alone in that lol.

 

Need more time with it (like years) to know if where it ranks but my current top 2 are TGG and Suburbia. It might be #3 or higher idk yet

 

I've given this a few listens and while it is indeed Very Good, it still isn't close to TGG for me. I don't really like knee-jerk album ranking a week after release but it is probably fair to say this will eventually land somewhere in the top 3, but if Sister Cities ends up clicking one day for me, that could change things.

 

I like Summer Clothes, but don’t really like Paris or Lost it so the three song run kinda drags

 

they announced the winners of the preorder contests on instagram

where is my vinyl

 

not gonna rank the album but it's very good

 

This was delivered about an hour ago

 

You’re not!

 

You and I are in a cordial, but passionate fight.

 

Man those callbacks are so good, still gives me goosebumps.

 

Put up yr dukes m8

 

Pumped to see them Saturday

 

Ooft that pressing is beautiful. Already got the clear/orange/pink splatter Deluxe on the way, but had to order this too...

 

Just got done with No Closer to Heaven and my immediate thought about halfway through was that I wasn’t sure what the band was doing on that album. The sequencing is whack and creates a lack of cohesion and vision to me on this album that carries through from start to finish.

I actually think a majority of the songs on the album are either good or okay. I enjoy the run from Cardinals to The Bluest Things on Earth for the most part as individual songs as opposed to the flow of them. I think Stained Glass Ceilings and I Wanted So Badly to Be Brave are both good too. I know Jason Aalon Butler’s feature is divisive, but I enjoy his presence and I actually think his feature would fit better if he only appeared on the second half of his section when he sings “Now I know what’s in a name, not just my father…”

Otherwise, I find the other half of the album to be largely forgettable. I think the mix and sequencing of this album really hold it back, not to mention an abundance of lackluster songs here. Overall, it’s pretty mediocre. I like this more than The Upsides, but much prefer Suburbia and The Greatest Generation to this.

Sister Cities is up next and I’m really looking forward to revisiting that one.

 

i think NCTH’s front half is great, but that could be just me as i see that complaint a lot. it makes perfect sense to me in terms of narrative. Brothers & Cardinals set up the themes of helplessness and death. Patsy Cline reinforces the mortality themes by expressing that you’re so numb to what’s going on that you’re indifferent if you go, while also nodding to the cardinal by using more car imagery (by not fixing the airbag, Dan too will crash through the windshield and die).

IDLWIWT is about change. he wasnt the best back then, he expresses it in the 2nd verse of Cardinals, and this is how he wants to be a better example while he is alive. C&S needs no explanation, its the focal point of the record. Bluest keeps at the hospital/medication themes from the previous songs, has tones of frustration and anger (sonically) from all this dread, and is the reason why, imo, the album is blue. i also like to think the light mentioned in the chorus is a reference to Back Then’s bridge, but thats a stretch. Ernest Hemmingway has a defeated, sacrificial air to it; he compares himself, again, to a dead bird, and maybe his death can be a sense of entertainment, or even a celebratory prize, for the people in his life (like a dog would at picking at the bird).

if the album went with Brave, into Palm Reader, into the closer after Henmingway, it would be my favorite TWY album

 

i love a song for patsy cline

 

Always thought it was pretty telling that the band themselves never fully believed in NTCH, since it never got a trailer with some 'this is the best thing we've ever done' narration over the top like TGG, SC and Hum got prior to release.

 

Yeah I recognize that Dan’s lyrics are stronger overall on NCTH, but I think many of the songs, as wholes, are clunky and awkward at times. I appreciate Dan becoming a better lyricist and tackling some heavy topics, but the songs could just be better and they aren’t.

 

I can definitely agree with that. I think the lyrics are a big reason why I like it; it’s the darkest TWY record imo and I can appreciate the emo splashes sonically even tho the songs themselves arent exactly the best (except C&S and NCTH; those are beautiful)

i’m really excited to hear back from you about SC bc I think it takes everything what’s great about NCTH but the rest of the band steps it up too

 

I always thought SC was the best thing they’ve ever done. I’m trying to go into every album with an open mind, but I won’t be surprised if my opinion stays the same with that one. It was everything I wanted the band to become.

 

i thought sister cities was a much darker album lyrically and musically. it's a little hard to get through sometimes if i'm not in the right headspace

 

theyre both quite dark! which is why i love them. i do think SC has more points of resolution though, like Flowers being a love song, the title track being about solidarity, and Ocean being about acceptance (at least to me). NCTH has You In January, which is cute, but it’s a tiny little light in a smog of doubt, grief, and apathy, esp with the closer. NCTH’s pain feels internal too; while both records touch on loss, NCTH has that emphasis on Dan’s indifference to live during that timeframe

 

I'll be there too! I think we have been to so many of the same shows haha