DASiano

I listened to every single second of this song and very much enjoyed every single second of this song. The clean vocals here are very much a background texture-my operative words were "lead vocals". I was pretty clear in both regards. Even with the new element, "Canary Yellow" is by and large a by the numbers Deafheaven song. "Honeycomb" even more so. Deafheaven doing by the numbers Deafheaven songs is still better than a lot of other bands. All I'm saying is that for LP5 going forward, I'd personally like to see more diversification from them. There's no need for them to get into AC/DC like territory and simply slightly tweak the standard formula for each new album. To me, that gets old fast. And if they do in fact go down that road in the future, all that'll mean is that I'll become a much more passive listener and hitch my wagon to someone else. Easy.

I posted this on another board and am copying it verbatim here (edit: I don't know what happened with the formatting. Weird): "Canary Yellow" is indeed an excellent track, and make no mistake-I am extremely hyped for this record (limited vinyl pre-order to boot). BUT, this upcoming album is basically the last time this band can sound like this before they get real same-y real fast. They are going to need to do *something* on the album after this one to mix it up a bit. I mean, both available tracks from OCHL basically indicate that this is going to be New Bermuda Part 2. That's all well and good, as that was a top shelf album, even if it was a cleaned-up distillation of Sunbather. But if LP5 turns out to be more of the same, then the formula is going to quickly lose luster. I don't know what kind of change ups would suit this band going forward, but I personally would start with dirty-ing up the guitar production. To my ears, the ultra clear and articulate guitar mixes on both New Bermuda and (by all indicators) OCHL don't really fit either the post-BM or shoegaze-y ambiances they are going for. The messy, smeary, more nebulous guitar mixing on Sunbather very much gets those aesthetics across in a better fashion. I'm not saying that they should simply re-write Sunbather, but that album's sonic aesthetics go a long way with this band's writing style. Further, Clarke needs to *badly* vary up his lead vocal stylings, as he is clearly the weakest link in the band by far (assumption being that OCHL has the same one dimensional lead vocal performance the other three albums had). I don't know if that translates specifically to clean singing (an overdone trope in this genre), but it certainly could mean experiments with death metal growling, punk like shouting/yelling, or more intense spoken work sections (ala Envy). Again, not to shit all over this album as I am looking very forward to hearing the final full record, and both "singles" (quotations used because the idea that this band-who's songs are lengthy on average with non-traditional linear song structuring and no real choruses to speak of-is commercially motivated is a laughable one) thus far have been superb.

These will be a blind purchase for me no doubt. I've learned to implicitly trust Numero when it comes to their 200 line. I knew nothing of Bedhead, Unwound, Blonde Redhead, Codeine, Crimpshrine, or Super Static Fever before being exposed to them via being exposed to Numero from here (I only knew Husker Du). And it turns out, all were top shelf. I expect this to be no different.

Well done. *fist bump*

In all seriousness I do not own any R.E.M. on wax, and I don't plan to unless it's a box set situation. I see used copies of the IRS records come through my local shop frequently, but these aren't my favorite albums from this band. Elite music, no doubt, but R.E.M. kind of starts with Green for me. The Warner era LPs seem to be scarce and somewhat pricey, so I just don't feel the drive to seek them out, and I'm not shelling out for MOFI reissues either (I've read implications here that these are the only good reissues). If they ever do a comprehensive and encyclopedic discography box set or box set series though, I'd immediately be all over that.

R U Talkin R.E.M. Re: Me, bro? https://soundcloud.com/troubles-afoot/how-does-it-feel-when-youre-in-rem-good

New Xanthochroid 3LP via Qrates. For those unfamiliar, this is pretty dense symphonic extreme metal. Somewhat similar to later Emperor or early solo Ihsahn, they self describe as "cinematic black metal". This is a lengthy, two act concept album. This one is not as visceral as Blessed He With Boils, but it is still extremely well written and performed, and is a very challenging listen. $41 shipped for a 3LP set is extremely reasonable, I feel. I've also been enjoying the works of Sentient Horror, an old-school Stockholm Swede-death styled band from New Jersey. Very well done Entombed/Dismember worship. Get the new EP and the 2016 full length.

This variant is actually the PledgeMusic exclusive, hence why the Bullmoose link now redirects to the yellow/orange splatter version. For this band in 2018, this album is remarkably good. Not nearly as good as Star, but to my tastes, it feels like it could easily be superior to King (which is a good record I never really connected with on a deeper level). Dove lacks the ethereal vibe of Star (as did King), as well as uptempo numbers akin to something like "Dusted" or "Slow Dog", but the songwriting, arrangements, production/sound design, and performances are all excellent here. I also have no qualms about how this PledgeMusic variant sounds, and its a relatively quiet master as well. Highly recommended.

Vielen dank.

Source/info on this? Google turned up no useable results...

Hippo Records in Greensboro. CFBG in Greensboro. Earshot in Winston-Salem. Main Street Vinyl in Burlington (never been, but has a good reputation). Yeah I know these are not in Charlotte and it's quite a hike to get to these from Charlotte. But RSD or not, these are all worth a visit, Hippo in particular. I guess this serves as a general plug, I am only now seeing that OP is from the UK and probably won't have time to commit to travel to these areas.

In for pink.

I think "Half Light" is excellent. I just prefer "Mother And Child Divided" between the two and think it flows better with "So Called Friend" which would be the preceding track. I tell you what, that's not a terrible idea in of itself. But what kills this particular song for me is the tempo. PT sounds awkward and feels uncomfortable at this type of fast tempo. I personally think the fastest they should go is something like "Arriving Somewhere..." or the title tracks to either Deadwing or Fear Of A Blank Planet-all three are relatively fast, but a bit slower than "...Master Tape". It just feels weird when they tried to play fast tempo material, at least to my ears, and "...Master Tape" might work a lot better 10-15 BPMs slower. Of course, I am talking of the "band" albums, as there is faster tempo stuff on the early "solo" albums (think "Linton Samuel Dawson") that works because it fits with the psych/krautrock pastiche vibe of those records.

My local shop got these in over the weekend, the black vinyl variants, snagged them both (as well as a 2018(?) black vinyl repress of Fear Of A Blank Planet). These both sound tremendous, but In Absentia in particular sounds full, booming, and crisp. Could very well be the best this album has ever sounded. God damn, this album is excellent-I haven't listened to this one in a long while and it just holds up amazingly (save for "The Creator Has A Mastertape", which never really resonated deeply with me as much as other PT/SW songs have). My only tiny gripe is that if you are going to include B-sides/non-album tracks on Deadwing, I personally would rather have had "Mother And Child Divided" instead of "Half Light". All in all, these represses are highly enjoyable and recommended. EDIT: I hope SW and Burning Shed do something with The Incident to round out the PT catalog. That said, they allegedly have copies of the original Tonefloat version available for purchase (although I do not see how that is possible). I think I'd hold out for a potential repress personally, if SW were to do a remaster in line with these two.

Hyped. That said, I slightly am wary of pre-ordering any limited variant of this because the New Bermuda pre-order was something of a disaster, especially regarding the "coke bottle clear", which manifested as a translucent green months after the initial release and other variants were readily available (funnily enough, googling info on the New Bermuda delay lead me here for the first time). Ah who am I kidding: this song is excellent and I'm near certain I'll cave on a limited variant pre-order.