Bronchitis

Haha, was kinda kidding because one of you mentioned not letting this turn into one of those threads. Patiently waiting for it to come.

Anyone receive a shipping confirmation yet? 😉 I've listened to this album probably 20 times since it came out and am pretty in love. I only gave this band a shot due to most of you guys in this thread talking about them around the time Illumination Ritual came out and have been obsessed ever since. Kinda gonna catch up on a lot of previous discussion right now, sorry. Feel free to ignore me. I'm not a fan of the synth 90% of the time, with the end of Petition being the main exception. God damn it puts a smile on my face every time when those drums come in leading into Time The Destroyer. The synth all just sounds like really generic sounding Guitar Center preset tones and I think it could have benefited from some warmer mellotron or organ sounds vs. the Moog Sub Phatty or whatever it is (just personal preference). The composition is there, just not feeling the tones. Obviously it is Chris and crew's vision and it works for them, so I'll live with it. Enough complaints and other than that, fucking Jesus the drums are out of this world and the tangles of guitar melt my brain. The dude really does have a genius ear for finding drummers. Probably the #1 reason I like this band so much. When the vocals come in with the drums at the end of Last Words and Final Celebrations is one of the prettiest things I have ever heard in my life. I read Chris say all of the guitar reverb on the album is natural due to the room and mic placement and that gets an A+++++++ from me. Great engineering going on there. I can't stand when people use really noticeable pedal reverb for cleaner guitars...makes me throw up in my mouth a little as my music taste devolves with age. The 3:45 and on part of Collision is also particularly beautiful. I could pick apart way more as if anyone cares but yeah, wonderful wonderful album. Seeing them in August and can't wait. /self indulgent rant over. I hope you are all doing well. As far as album order for me. Not a single bad one though and not sure where the new one fits in yet: 1.) Illumination Ritual - this album has an immediacy that is really impressive for a band that was so far into their career at that point. Cathedral Rings is perfect. 2.) Mare Vitalis - Fishing the Sky is the best guitar riff ever written in my opinion and Storms is top tier Appleseed Cast. I wish I could yell like that. 3.) Low Level Owl (pt. 2 > pt. 1) - I could really do without the interludes most of the time but oh well. Just doesn't please my ears as much as it used to. 4.) Two Conversations - I enjoy the tighter song structures and lack of post-rock influence compared to some of their other stuff. It is refreshing. 5.) Peregrine and Sagarmatha tied - I don't really spend much time with either of these, so feel free to school me. 6.) Ring Wars - Album is perfect and way more down my alley musically than anything else they have done, just doesn't have a lot of the elements that make me love this band. The lack of ringing cymbals and octopus drumming bums me out, haha. And I definitely understand the SDRE comparison.

I have never played VIII but will have to give a try. I honestly haven’t heard many good things about it and just assume people are blowing it out of proportion.

Damn straight boiiii

I picked up the sarcasm as in “it isn’t punk to have UO exclusives” but you were still calling them punk, so yeah. Not sure what you are getting at there. Nice try.

Can’t compute. Not in morse code.

Depressive Collective. Misery needs company, right?

I take some pretty effective bipolar meds and would take your depression off your hands if I could. Hopefully you are doing well and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Shit is no fun at all.

Not to pigeonhole you, but knowing your general musical taste, I’d say go with It’s a Wonderful Life first and move backwards if you are into it. That one is very spacious, somber and just an all around beautiful work of art. The first record is what I guess I would call alt-country with some more experimental sounds thrown in, with the second expanding on that. Lots of really interesting found sounds and manipulation. The third, It’s a Wonderful Life, is the work of a man who figured out what he wanted to do and executed it perfectly. One of the best fall/winter albums I can think of. I feel like even if you aren’t super into Sparklehorse, you will still respect Mark Linkous as an artist. Dude was a genius and a national treasure and the world is a worse place without him in it. Maybe one of these days I will make a Mark Linkous appreciation thread because I think my friends and family are a bit tired of me geeking out about him.

My friend gave me a 15 year old broken butterfly knife as a present for being the best man in his wedding and I was totally cool with it, so clearly I’m down for whatever free stuff you want to throw at me.

I should definitely listen to some more. I always get stuck on certain albums and have that mentality I described in my post above. It’s one of those things I am trying to get better at not doing as I get older. I was obsessed with the first Sparklehorse album without ever bothering to listen to any of their other output for a good five years before listening to the other albums and could probably write a book about how much I love every song from them nowadays. I’ll have to go through the Helms Alee discography chronologically soon.

I didn’t want to feed the troll but not only did he spend $3000+, his friends denied the gifts. Yo tug, I will be your friend and I promise I won’t turn down gifts, even if it’s some shitty Fall Out Boy RSD picture disc or whatever the hell gets pressed these days.

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The last boss...my god. I had to farm balloons on the secret level in the second world to even stand a chance. My friend and I went through about 60 balloons on that fight. Good luck, my man.

That’s so weird, I just beat Tropical Freeze the night before I started FFIX!