The Wonder Years - Sister Cities (April 6, 2018) Album • Page 180

Hi all, I'm new here! Big TWY fan. Absolutely loving this album. I think the songwriting is top drawer and there's so much emotion as always. Cannot wait to see them live this Friday!

Anyway I've got one gripe, and I know it's been mentioned before but the production (well actually the EQ) is hurting my ears at points. I'm an amateur sound engineer so I probably notice this stuff more than most (sometimes I wish I didn't). I actually like a raw sound but I find when I turn certain parts of this album up in volume it really hurts my ears, the mids are just really harsh to me, particularly on the climax of the amazing closing Track. It's mainly the cymbals. I'm finding this frustrating as I want to listen to it loud, but it hurts my ears to do so. It's not my headphones as I don't get this with other albums. Anyone else finding this?

Amazing album though like I say, the EQ is just a tad frustrating.

 

I’m not particularly well-versed in producing/engineering/mixing or anything like that but I do agree. I really like the songs but something about how they sound holds me back from being as into this album as I thought I would be.

 

Agreed. I just want to lose myself in that gorgeous closing track and every time I turn it up to 'maximum immersion' level (its a thing... I think) certain parts of the mix hurt my ears so I have to turn it back down again. Frustrating. Definitely takes me out of it a bit.

Edit: Just listened on my old, cheaper, more bass orientated headphones and it's much less harsh during the louder sections. Will just have to carry these round to listen to it I guess!

 

I read the SPIN article and I think them changing pace makes sense. They've been on a very intensive touring model for years now and slowing down is a very reasonable decision. Lots of bands in this scene balance part time jobs and touring life to fulfil both a passion for music and other interests all at once. That model allows for shorter, more spaced out tours, more time to write, a more stable routine. I get why that would fit Dan in particular since he's talked a lot about going back to teaching. I don't know every individual sitch of every member though

 

I could see it meaning Dan writing more Aaron West stuff

 

This book is hefty

 

“Idk, man. This new Wonder Years record kinda sounds like Brand New to me”.
*A wild Nick Steinborn is seen standing in a distant forest*

 

That article was totally fucking weird, so many bizarre statements that sound like the writer's been listening to the band for about two days.

"It’s a big boy album that you don’t come across a lot these days, everything that previous Wonder Years albums were (loud, hooky, lyrically detailed, centered around Campbell’s strident wail) and everything they weren’t (deliberately sequenced and paced, ballad-heavy, immaculately produced)"

like what

 

My book came in today! Can't wait to sit down with it in a bit

 

At this point talking about the wonder years and mixing/production is a meme

 

the mixing on this album definitely isn't great though

 

The mixing is awful

 

Yeah it’s only a little better than the last one in terms of how it sounds. Which means I don’t find it almost unlistenable (I like the new record a lot and don’t want the band to see this and feel like they’re being crapped on because it’s so good but I hope they move in a different direction production-wise going forward.)

 

I'm absolutely in the same boat here and quite honestly, I feel like they could take any number of routes and still come out successful.

Like, I'd love a heavy as fuck album along the lines of Ghosts of Right Now/Raining in Kyoto, but I could also hang with a poppier album full of it Must Get Lonely type songs.

 

Listening while reading lyrics finally. Only on Pyramids but wow yeah this is easily Dan’s best work in that regard.

I’m interpreting Pyramids as being about Dan’s grandfather dying as well, rather than about another subject as the annotations on Genius suggest. The “beating at the water here so desperately” ties in very well with “raining in Kyoto, flooding the streets” conceptually for me. “Hiding in the ivy” could be a double meaning— “hiding in the I.V.” Idk. Could be wrong but that’s what I’m getting.

Okay, now to unpause and resume It Must Get Lonely lol.

 

I kinda wish the first chorus to Heaven’s Gate was soft/maybe piano/keyboard driven.

 

Ghosts of Right Now and Flowers Where Your Face Should Be are my favorites this listen.

 

Bravo on that ivy/I.V. catch. Brings a new depth to that lyric.

EDIT: Also, fuck half those Genius annotations. I saw the one about the use of the word hands being a call back to another lyrics that used the word hands and decided there was no need to read any more annotations.

 

uh... that's pushing it a liiiiiiittle bit lol

 

all right lol

 

Some of the annotations (not related to possible call backs) help with context. Particularly on Kyoto. So thanks to whoever did that work. Also I think the lyrics lend themselves better to multiple interpretations on this album than any other, which I love.

Ive decided that to me this is their best work. The only song that to me seems out of place is Sister Cities but that's likely bc I played it out before the release. Glad I didn't do the same to Pyramids.

The closer is my favorite right now and really hoping that it closes their main set on tour. Going to try to avoid setlists until the Philly show. So stoked to see the production on the tour, it's always something different.

 

A couple of the annotations seemed like a stretch to me so *big ol shrug*. I’m done offering my own takes on the lyrics tho, tbh, at least here.

 

i mean, you're in this thread, you should know by now that most people in here look wayyyyyy too deep into this band

 

There was nothing wrong with that users interpretation lol. At all

 

lol sorry didn't mean to upset anyone but like. we don't know everything about dan's life, thankfully, and every song doesn't have to be about the ONE aspect that we know of.
I mean again, every song means whatever the listener wants it to mean, death of the artist, analysis is futile and subjective, and we're all gonna die one day

and cwhit don't underestimate me I've got a degree in literature. Reaching is a second nature for me