...Trail of Dead - Worlds Apart.

I thought they were better back when they were trying to be grandiose Sonic Youth.

oh my god the cooper temple clause were like my favourite band when i was 17 OF COURSE

their second album was still pretty good and possibly even more ambitious than the debut. their third album is one of the worst records ever made

Ha yeah CTC actually makes sense!

lol xp

the third album has a few good songs but the label mangled the track selection, which inspired its title. the b-sides (some of which are basically impossible to find online in decent quality) are, by and large, much more inspired.

the second album was the ambitious one I had in mind. a real kitchen-sink record.

god dammit i am listening to 'digital observations' for the first time in ten years

first album is notable for 'did you miss me' and 'murder song' and the rest idk i mean those are the only two i've listened to in ten years until now (see previous post)

the first album has some great songs but the angst is just so extra and the production is bizarre

this might be one of the most effortful rock albums ever. they were trying so hard!!

they've always tried hard. it suits them

this was their reward

"Let It Dive" was featured in the EA Sports video game MVP Baseball 2005. "Will You Smile Again?" was the emotional charge in a scene to end of 7th episode titled "Hurts" of The Shield in season 4. It also appears in the Codemasters video game Colin McRae: Dirt 2 and the 2005 movie Goal!

"Let It Dive" was featured in the EA Sports video game MVP Baseball 2005

my friends in my freshman year of college played this game a lot, and i would always say "i love this song" whenever it started playing

"let it dive" is one of my favorite songs ever, no joke

― J0rdan S., Thursday, July 23, 2009 1:14 AM (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

hahaha this rules

for the first time in a decade I listened to the title track

in retrospect making your potential breakout single a very bad song that directly references 9/11 and Cribs not such a hot idea

the title track rules but the lyrics do not

^this

as I keep saying though, Worlds Apart is an obviously v good album - admitting you love So Divided is the galaxy-brain move

and in fact, as was discovered when we polled them, they've never done an album that isn't good

"the best" makes me think of the foos one, which I only like in cicierega context

it predates "best of you" by at least two years!

loooove cicierega's 'best' but yeah he missed a trick not throwing this in too haha

woulda been funny if trail of dead pulled a killing joke on them

god there are so many segues on this thing, I swear it's half segues

every time I revisit this I do find the second half mostly a slog. "a classic art showcase" is a not great rock song stapled onto a kinda boring string part. I don't really get "the best".

"lost city of refuge" is one of their best songs though

if I were managing them I would have been extremely direct with them during this period lol

I don't like this album because it's the first album where they noticeably shifted away from their Sonic Youth / Unwound influences and to me it's so angsty in a way where it makes their older stuff sound more tasteful and mature in comparison. Last thing I loved by them was Secret of Elena's Tomb.

If I’m not mistaken this album came with a bonus dvd of them touring and there was a scene where I think they were at some festival trying to bum music gear so they could play and other bands were wary of loaning because of their destructive set tendencies.

they noticeably shifted away from their Sonic Youth / Unwound influences

yeah their pivot to (purposely?) sound more mainstream is closer to...like the gothy end of Blink-182 lol

Not sure if Simon still posts here but anyway I didn't mean "mainstream" - more that it was like their collective influences completely changed suddenly; as if all the members got replaced by people with totally different musical backgrounds who were still tasked with making their own idea of "trail of dead" records.

It's worth hearing their later albums. The influences you like fluctuate, but they're never too far away

imago otm, I actually thought last year's Bleed Here Now was one of their best in quite some time

IX might be my favourite of their albums full stop

I need to revisit that one, came at a weird time and I'm not sure I ever gave it enough time.

One thing I'm struck by is how consistent they've been. All their albums are at least quite good.

I forget about this band in between thread bumps. Time for another binge.