Manchester Orchestra - The Million Masks of God (April 30, 2021) Album • Page 299

Wtf everybody, I love Cope

 

Tier 1:
ILAV

Tier 2:
METN
Black Mile

Tier 3:
Simple Math
Cope
MMOG

 

Mixing and over simplicity brings it down. I get what they were going for, but it could have been a lot better executed. Still a barn burner and those songs rule when they’re played live

 

Cope sounds like shit, but most of the songs are dope

 

Dope should be the name of their next Cope remixed/re-recorded album

 

Folks, we've done this before.

 

Yes

 

Top two are forever, everything else changes by the week.

METN
VIRGIN
BM
MMOG
SM
COPE



Upcoming Patreon shows are real cool.

 

Don't you of all people suggest we not do something repetitive on here lmao

 

Countdown till the next countdown starts now

 

A tale as old as time

 

METN
ABMTTS

TMMOG
SM
ILAV

Hope


Cope

 

The albums are difficult to rank because I think there is a difference for a lot of people between their "best" and someone's favorite. Favorite could be due to nostalgia, being in the mood, or having more of an affinity for the indie emo punky side rather than the newer evolved side.

MMOG - I love this album because I got to first experience it all with my partner as we were new in our relationship and our first few concerts together was this album tour. I also think they take what they learned from Black Mile as far as experimenting and evolving and try even more things with this one. I think they have some of their best-written songs on here. Angel of Death and Obstacle I think are some of Andy's best works from a songwriting and sound perspective. Telepath is gorgeous. I very much do not like Let it Storm, and feel like Dinosaur is a neutered version on here compared to live. Way back is pleasant, but a little forgettable and The Internet (outside of the climax) feels like a lesser version of The Silence.

Black Mile - This feels like their big evolution as a band and has been deemed as basically MO 2.0 or the second era of Manchester. The Maze, The Gold, The Silence, The Sunshine were all huge hits. The Moth and Lead, SD are rad. The Act 2 of The Alien through The Grocery is very well done. I am not a huge fan of The Mistake, I feel like The Wolf was missing something similar to Dinosaur, and The Parts felt like it belonged on a solo andy album. Overall probably their most consistent album and went together beautifully as a full piece.

COPE/HOPE - These are the controversial ones, or rather Cope is. They claimed they wanted to do one straight through all crunchy guitar record before they got too old, and well they did it. The sound mixing wasn't fantastic. Some great straight-through songs but nothing incredibly interesting or unique. Hope is where a few of these songs really come alive and the arrangements are absolutely gorgeous and also make you appreciate Cope a bit more. Top Notch, Girl Harbor, The Mansion, Every Stone, Indentions and Cope are some of my favorites on there. But I think it's pretty clear they could do a bit better.

Simple Math - This one is another slightly controversial and mixed bag for folks, some love it as one of their faves, and others put it down a bit in rankings. They tried lots of different things, strings, kids' choirs, and more. A little bit of a departure from METN, some people love Leaky Breaks, but others certainly don't. Lots of people say the two most underrated MO songs are Apprehension and Leave it Alone. Pensacola, April Fool, and Pale Black Eye have been on live setlists for a while. Mighty gets lost in the mix. Deer is a really cool sparse opener. Not shocking that this tends to average out around the middle.

METN - This is the big one for people that got into MO pre-Black Mile era. A big step up from ILAVLAC, peak indie emo rock. Shake It Out, Pride, The River, I've Got Friends, The Only One. The soft I Can Feel A Hot One. Crowd favorite sing-along 100 Dollars. This is usually agreed upon to be the best of MO 1.0 and they have so many staple songs that live on. If you have a ton of the nostalgia, or are more of a grungy indie emo rock fan, this is probably your favorite.

ILAVLAC - I hate to say that I think a lot of the love this one gets is from nostalgia and style. I adore Colly Strings. I Can Barely Breathe (End of the World), Where Have You Been? and Wolves at Night are killer. But there are a lot of songs that are old-school emo little songs like I Can Feel Your Pain and Sleeper 1972 and Don't Let Them See You Cry which personally bring the record down a little for me because I didn't have the nostalgia for it. I also think songs like Now That You're Home, The Neighborhood is Bleeding, Golden Ticket, Alice and Interiors are all great for 17-year-old musicians for sure, but are definitely beaten by a lot of tracks on their newer records from a songwriting perspective which makes total sense.


If we're doing my personal tier list it would probably be

TMMOG
Black Mile
METN

HOPE
Simple Math

ILAVLAC
COPE

but it's very different for everyone depending on what they prefer and when they were introduced to the band and what they have nostalgia for.

 

I'm curious to see everyone's song rankings for TMMOG. We did them for all the other records before the new album came out....I think this is my current ranking.




Angel of Death
Bed Head
Keel Timing
Obstacle
Telepath
Inaudible
Dinosaur (album version, live is a big higher)
The Internet
Annie
Way Back
Let It Storm

 

i think million masks of god is my favorite now

million masks of god
a black mile to the surface
simple math
mean everything to nothing
cope
i'm like a virgin

y'all know i adore cope so functionally it's tied with metn. also i love being wrong

 

Upcoming as in the ones they just put out that are heavily Black Mile and MMOG, or do you mean for August and September?

 

I could go without listening to Let It Storm ever again and this band is an easy top 5 for me. I truly, madly, deeply dislike that song.

Angel of Death
Bed Head
Way Back
Telepath
Obstacle
Inaudible
Keel Timing
The Internet
Dinosaur
Annie
Let It Storm

 

August and September.

 

I think my ranking would be

MMOG
Simple Math
Black Mile
METN

Hope
Cope
ILAVLAC


I absolutely love all of their albums, though, even the one ones at the bottom

 

If I had to rank the songs, I think mine would be pretty similar to yours.

Angel of Death
Bed Head
Way Back
Telepath
Obstacle
Dinosaur
Inaudible
Keel Timing
The Internet
Let It Storm
Annie

 

I’m getting Mad Online because of how low everyone has Cope (not really)

 

METN
million

Everything else

 

MMoG has my favorite “highs” this band has ever done.
But I still favor Black Mile overall because I find it more enjoyable front to back.

 

"Inaudible" through "Annie" is masterpiece level for me.

"Telepath", "Let It Storm", "Dinosaur", "Obstacle" and "The Internet" are all really good.

I don't really care for "Way Back" very much at all, and I think that's mostly because it's a slow, low energy song coming towards the end of an album that feels long to me because the first half is so high energy and then it feels like it downshifts and I'm constantly waiting for it to pick back up and it never does.

 

second half of mmog is what makes it so special…. especially “way back”