Chorus sounds like recent Imagine Dragons, which I don't think is a particularly positive thing. It's like something that'll end up being played in a movie or video game trailer. Lauren sounds good though.
Lauren's voice is amazing once more. A great start and quite good slow parts, with a great build-up for the choruses with the synths in the background, I just wish there were more synths instead of that Imagine Dragons-ish drop filled with millennial whoop that almost kills the vibe of what would be an amazing song. The distorted voice people are talking about is ok. Even the part towards the end that has some trap or what is not that aggressive so that's fine as well. When I said they could diversify, I wasn't thinking of it this way. It's the only song with this producer Steve McCutcheon. I'd rank the singles this way: 1 Never Say Die (didn't like it at first, but now it's the most memorable) 2 Get Out (great song, but just like some other songs of theirs) 3 My Enemy ft Matt Berninger (would be a great song without Matt Berninger, the contrast between slower singing of Matt and Lauren's energy doesn't combine so well) 4 Miracle (don't like the Imagine Dragons vibe and the trap near the end, despite the great start and slower parts) As to the album I think it can be a 7 at best, just taking into account the singles. Won't be a bad album, I think, but also not consistent like the debut and great like EOE.
This album is going to be incredibly average at best. I've lost all my hype for this album. Miracle isnt necessarily bad but its not great either and its weaker than every Lauren led song from their first two albums. I feel that way about Get Out, My Enemy and Never Say Die as well. The only song I truly enjoy is Get Out and it still feels way weaker then their first two albums. This album is also shorter as well and we have heard 1/4th of the album already and that 1/4th is overall very bad. Here is to LP4
Still 8 songs missing, two of them self-produced, so it can bounce back a bit, I see it as no more than 7 because I gave the debut an 8 and the sophomore a 9 and I think it won't match those two. Still, I don't see it as being a bad album, because Lauren's voice makes some of the otherwise bad songs or average ones sound good or great. Thankfully we only got one song with a feature (the second worst in my rank) and another one with other producer than Greg Kurstin (the worst), so good things to come in the others, which I expect to be more signature CHVRCHES. I think Miracle is the outlier song, much like Good Goodbye was in OML. I still believe in this album much like I did in OML, but they need to play to their strengths since they've shown that innovating was not the best thing for them.
I actually rather like Miracle. From what I can tell this album may actually be positioned as a pseudo concept album talking about heartbreak through to love towards the end.
So I actually liked all the singles so far, but damn I got sick of them so quickly except some of the production of Never Say Die and Lauren's singing there's nothing memorable on them. right now I have pretty much zero motivation to listen to them tbh. a shame because I can't count how much I listened to their first albums in full (except the Martin lead mess lol). I really hope the rest of the album will be better.
I think they (like most bands these days) dropped too many singles before the release date. I guess 2 singles is the reasonable amount because otherwise it spoils the albums too much. That must happen due to labels and producers putting pressure on the bands to do so because I don't think any band would want to spoil an album that much so that listeners could have a general idea of what the record will be about and still be hyped for it.
I think bands should stop having such large breaks between the single and album. That way they can reduce the number of singles released and maintain the album experience. Of course, many say the album as an artistic choice is dying.
It's sad that EPs and singles are slowly taking over, but going back to the huge amount of singles, it happens to most bands, but for example Arctic Monkeys will release their album on May 11th and until now no single has been released. It's strange as well, so bands should choose an amount of single that keeps people interested without leaking it too much. I personally don't like it when it's just EPs and singles because I prefer the experience of listening to an album for 35-45 minutes or a bit longer and comment on it, find what's good and bad about it and then rate it according to my opinion.
At the A-list level, acts which are eschewing the album format and staying purely singles-focused are definitely a minority. Basically everyone's cycles are still built around full-length releases. Even The Chainsmokers, from a certain point of view.
I think we might be seeing a new trend where albums are becoming prominent digitally. Rappers the last two years have been constantly releasing18 song albums to exploit streaming numbers. I haven't really seen it cross into other genres but I wouldn't be surprised it did eventually.
Ok after the singles I had low expectations and was pretty much prepared to be totally disappointed, but hey the album is actually good! I mean yeah the choruses are too repetitive and the overall sound of the album is actually the same just like their other stuff but the adding of live drums truly give it a huge sound, I always thought that the programmed drums in their music were super basic and nothing special. also thank god there's only one Martin lead song, but to be fair it isn't that bad Favorites so far after couple of listens: Graffiti is fucking banger, so good Deliverance is repetitive just like Get Out, but I like it way more. Same like Forever, the drums sound fantastic here. Graves and Wonderland are great as well.
After first listen this album is very bad. It's like they lost all inspiration or something. Only good songs to me were Graffiti (one of their best songs ever), Get Out, and Wonderland.
After listening to this album once i’m going to say i’m actually happy with how this album turned out. It’s not bad but it’s not great either. After the singles I had low expectations. However, I felt there were only a few low moments compared to a fair amount of good moments. That being said there are a lot of songs i believe are meh. Definitely their weakest album but there’s a few songs that I think are standout like Graffiti, Graves and Wonderland. I’ll give it another listen but I just want to listen to Graffiti more Edit: 2nd listen makes me believe that this is a good album. Still believe there’s a lot of songs that i have mixed feelings on but I can enjoy it more now than i did on the first listen
It's pretty good. My favourites so far are Graffiti, Get Out and Graves. Graffiti is brilliant. I could listen to it over and over again.
They'll probably never top TBOWYB for me and so far haven't come close, but I might like this one more than EoE. This has more highs than EoE, but also more lows, EoE is more consistent. Production is great as always and Lauren has much improved as a vocalist, she definitely shines here. "Graffiti" and "Graves" are two good examples. It can take a long time for albums to grow on me, so I'll have to see how I feel about this album months from now. There are a few tracks I do think are among their best and I'll come back to those, but the rest of the album I'm just not feeling.