The Wonder Years Band • Page 13

i don't think anything on NCTH was insincere - i can't think of many bands who pour their hearts out on their music as much as TWY do. the themes and motifs on it just weren't that well executed, at least in comparison to TGG and Suburbia. for the first time it felt to me as if they had hit a wall.

 

While I like TGG more I still think Palm Reader is one of the best songs this band has written..

 

I'm not sure how many people remember reading this, but when NCTH came out Dan was saying how he kind of hit a writers-block and was having a lot of trouble putting together songs. I think that's why this album feels like it fell short. Don't get me wrong, I think this albums great, but I think it has the highest highs and the lowest lows of TWY's career.

 

Nothing on it's as garbage as Madelyn and I like every song more than a good amount of Suburbia and The Upsides too. I don't really like either of those albums though.

 

Madelyn is great

 

I used to not like Madelyn, but I'm pretty okay with it now

 

Madelyn hits home for me my little sisters name is Madeline and she's been having a rough year at school and I always think of her when I listen to that song.

 

I hate that song so much, ha. I don't really dislike anything on NCTH.

 

The only song on NCTH I actually hate is Thanks for the Ride, but I wouldn't use that as a metric for how much I like or dislike an album. Even if the other albums have lower lows (and I'm not sure they do), NCTH is the weakest because of how lackluster and meh it is across the board.

 

Really? Not that I think Thanks For The Ride is great by any means, thought it was one of the more solid songs on NCTH.

 

Yeah, I wasn't saying having lower lows makes a worse album I was just disagreeing with someone about NCTH having the lowest lows. I think NCTH is pretty lackluster across the board but I still think it's their most consistently decent album, ha. I feel like TGG has more songs I love but more songs I don't like at all so I'd say it's quite close between those for me. I'd probably still go TGG.

 

That's my fav song on ncth

 

I dislike Madelyn, but it might be because it's sandwiched between two of my favorites on TGG (Cul-de-sac and Funeral). Like, the acoustic track right at the end takes away from the momentum Cul-de-sac builds. I have an alternate playlist where Madelyn is just gone and the impact Cul-de-sac into Funeral has is just great.

 

I think Madelyn's supposed to be before Cul-de-sac..

 

Oh sorry, I'm a bit sleepy, been up since 6 this morning. I meant that Madelyn kills the momentum of the album into Cul-de-sac, I completely flipped what I meant.

 

I did the same for Patsy Cline on NCTH. I've never truly disliked anything this band has done until I heard that song.

 

I think Madelyn leads into cul de sac so well

 

It's an awful song and Dan sounds awful on it. I kind of feel like TGG just grinds to a screeching half in the final third, before picking back up again with the closer. Shame, because the top of that record is stacked.

 

Agreed.

 

nah that back half is excellent

 

"coffee eyes" - the wonder years

 

It is a Capn Jazz reference that also is an upturned TWY reference but yes I think I've made it pretty clear in my repeated defense of this band that I'm a fan

 

I'm actually a fan of Patsy Cline. The lyrics hit me really hard at a darker time in my life and I think it sounds good musically. I don't like altering tracklists, but if I did for this album (which I think it could use) it'd look like this:

Brothers & Cardinals (I like the idea of merging the songs into one song with a long intro)
A Song For Patsy Cline
The Bluest Things on Earth
Cigarettes and Saints
A Song For Earnest Hemingway
Thanks for the Ride
Stained Glass Ceilings
You In January
Palm Reader
No Closer to Heaven

 

I'm gonna disagree with Craig and say that the back half of TGG is the stronger half. Sure, the back half has Madelyn, but the front half has tracks 3-5 which are such boring, unremarkable songs that I always skip right from 2 to 6.

Madelyn is underrated, by the way. It's still my third least favorite on TGG but it's really not a terrible song.

 

My track listing for NCTH would be:

(write new opener)
Palm Reader
Stained Glass Ceilings, first half only
You in January
Cigarettes and Saints

Decent EP.