The distortion feels full and wide.heavy and airy, all at once. Sonically, this album has some of my favorite production sound. But they still have something to add to the whole picture. Now "Evolution", "Leaving Babylon" I always took as one offs.a kind of change of pace. Celebratory and self assuring, they're just good time high energy jams. "Livin and Rockin" and "Can't Fade Me" have the quintessential "We're unique, we kick ass, if you don't like it, kick rocks" attitude so many 311 songs have. "Come Original" and "Strong All Along" are pretty straight forward.fuck the naysayers cause they don't mean a thing. Sometimes it sucks, and you can allow yourself to get mad, sad, and confused. And in rare form for 311, they kind of revel in it a little bit, which I kind of dig. "Flowing" and "Sever" are their take on the some of the most universally understood problems that feel immense and unending when in midst of it all: insomnia and a break up. "Large in the Margin", "Eons", and "Mindspin" all touch on those aspects of our personalities and lives that confound and complicate, and take an honest look inwards at what we as individuals and as a whole are responsible for. Choosing to accept it and work with it instead of uselessly fighting it. And that mentality has always resonated with me.įor me, songs like "Freeze Time" and "Life's not a Race" help keep a proper perspective of time and change. Just ways to cope, live positively, and not let it paralyze you. Nick and SA are very introspective on this collection, asking a lot of serious questions, and not always landing on any satisfying answers. Ruminating on what the album has been for me, thematically I always felt it was kind of a darker album. So I do remember it taking me a while to like it in its entirety, but "Freeze Time" "Come Original" "Large in the Margin" "Flowing" and "Eons" had me from the get go. If not, it'll be nice to write it all out, but it's gonna be lengthy! :) It saw me through my teenage years, and I've analyzed and pondered this album many times, so if you're really interested, I'll share my thoughts. Very interesting to hear this point of view! Soundsystem was the first album I heard of theirs a little over 15 years ago, and it immediately had me hooked. But the rest of the album is what I said, as of this listen. Soundsystem I think is the only one I hadn't even given one listen to though.Įdit: The last 3 tracks are the opposite of everything I said. Wanted to hear y'alls thoughts on the album and what you appreciate in it, or perhaps what I should pay more attention to for future listens.įull disclosure, I am going through the whole 311 discog start to finish, with the only albums I was 100% familiar with before 2 days ago being Grassroots, Blue, Transistor, Universal Pulse, Stereolithic, and Mosaic. But now that I do have a better sense for the subtlety of 311, I still think this album just offers no value and I don't feel like I'm overwhelmed with newness and not hearing it right. Then again, I thought 80% of Transistor was bad the first time I heard it, and now I think 80% of it is great. It doesn't sound like Blue exactly, but it sorta sounds like a lukewarm version of the stereotypical 311 sound ish, across 13 songs. None of them are catchy, no hits, none of them really grab me, they all pretty much sound the same, not much experimentation, no concept really. Just finished listening to it for the first time pretty much ever, had maybe tried a song or 2 with no recollection, and recently got REALLY into 311 as in, now positively consider them one of my favorite bands.Īfter the masterful album that is Transistor (I don't think it's perfect or like every single song, but it has some masterful work and overall has a masterpiece feel to it, and is of course experimental and visionary and conceptual), I get that it's hard to follow up.īut seriously, Soundsystem was what they came up with? It sounds like a collection of random 311 b-sides to me.
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