The Dangerous Summer - Gravity (June 21, 2024) • Page 13

Listening now. Currently on Turning Love Into War, and this song is a snooze.

I Feel More Like Myself rocked my socks though.

 

Its not MN, but there is more good than bad here. I really like "Where Did All The Time Go?".

 

My first listen didn’t leave me to impressed. One of my favorite bands though, so I’ll definitely give it some more spins to see if it grows on me.

 

just hit play and damn this opener goes. was not expecting the screaming

 

I’ll withhold judgement because I haven’t even made it through the whole thing yet but the production sounds like complete shit to me. Still love the singles and the opener was cool but so far nothing else is really hitting.

 

Hoping it'll sound more dynamic on a better set up than my mid car speakers. Wasn't the most impressive first listen. That being said, TDS albums (other than Mother Nature) have a habit of being growers for me so maybe it'll come around.

 

The first 5 songs are pretty great then this falls off a cliff. Still better than the last album, but missing what made this bands comeback so great.

 

I think the first 7 on this would make a pretty great EP, but yeah. pretty colossal falloff. even on the strong songs it's mostly the instrumentals having a bit more life to them that's carrying this, the lyrics and melodies are still so repetitive like the last however many songs he's written, it's just hard to believe it's the same dude who wrote Weathered and Everyone Left and etc etc making this stuff now. honestly feels like an entirely different songwriter

 

peeked at the opener before work...I think this could have been an interesting song but it just doesn't really land with the way it's produced

 

Opener was a banger. It starts so good. I’m dreading what sounds like the fall off mid way through lol.

 

The 4 singles, the opener and Dream are the highlights here. The closing track is probably the most forgettable TDS song. The other 5 songs arent terrible, just didnt do much for me. Lets see if they grow on me at all.

 

One thing about this record I wasn't expecting was that it would share so much sonic DNA with Golden Record. There are a lot of moments and songs on here that sound straight from that era of the band (even AJ's vocal delivery at times). You could have told me Turning Love Into War was a Golden Record B side and I wouldn't have blinked.

One aspect of TDS' more recent material that I am really missing is the rhythm guitars. Say what you will about Cody Payne, but he used open, ringing chords and strumming patterns in a way that really filled out their sound and added a unique texture to those albums (listen to the beginning of Where I Want To Be or This Is War). Most of TDS' output after Golden Record uses mostly power chords, octaves, or sometimes what sounds like just the low E string as the rhythm part.

The guitar work on this album is definitely a step in the right direction though, I wonder how much of that is due to their new guitarist Josh and how much was written by Matt Kennedy when he was still in the band.

Edit: "Dream" is the best TDS song since Mother Nature

 

i have been a casual fan of this band over the years. I adore the first 2-3 records and some of Mother Nature, but don't really expect much from them anymore. now about halfway through this and the opener is really the only one to grab me. the rest feels like a shadow of the former band - not terrible but predictable and very tame

 

I think all or mostly all of this was written with Matt, even if they went back and re-recorded stuff. Will be interesting if this current lineup holds and they get an album to write together for.

I don’t mind this but agree it’s missing some kind of sonic punch or energy or something. Hard to place it for me. I’ve played the singles a lot, probably the most since anything off MN but definitely agree the majority of the rest of the album doesn’t match as well.

AJ also has another broken glowsticks EP out soon. Ironically those have been the far better tracks imo for the most part of the past few years of output, despite occupying the same sonic space & production sounds

 

Man, I'm so bummed to hear about this falling off so hard in the back half. I was so excited after hearing the opener/enjoying the singles.

 

First listen, I do not think it fell off that hard in the back. "Dream", the penultimate song was a standout to me. Looking forward to more listens.

 

The production is bad on that song, but even if it were better, I feel like it still suffers from the same "repeat the same line over and over again and call it a chorus" crutch that AJ has been leaning on for years.

 

Clouds In My Eyes is too personal for me to listen to more than once

 

I've been listening to this album all day. I'm really into the vibe and aesthetic of this album. I almost immediately put it above Golden Record and Self-Titled after one listen. Self-titled hit me really hard when it came out and I thought highly of it, but it has not held it's value to me over time.

Coming Home eventually grew on me, but I'm still left with this weird void after that album came out. Especially it being the follow up to Mother Nature.

Still excited to see how this new one lasts for me.

 

It feels more and more like Sam Pura is the reason Mother Nature was so good and sounded so inspired. I don’t think most of these songs are bad, but it’s clear AJ needs someone pushing him to make more interesting sonic choices.

 

I am enjoying this effort from them. But I agree that the singles fooled me.

 

that might also be an issue although I can see it working in the context of the heavier moment. the problem i have lyrically is the "this won't be the album anyone wanted" verse stinks lol

 

Yeah, dude used to be a fantastic lyricist. I’m not as keen to read along as I used to with their stuff. I’m sure not all of it bad but I’m definitely realizing they’re not as strong as they used to be

 

some of the lyrics on mother nature were lol too but the songs were much better so it wasn’t as big of a deal

 

Yeah, I don't like that verse, either. The song mostly just doesn't work for me.

Count the cocaine references.