New album Foregone out February 2023

[Jester Slave]

I mean I'm not particularly interested either, but since we don't have a record yet, we might as well check them, instead of getting into R2R's production, Anders' voice, why Jesper left, and all the other topics we have already discussed to death. We'll have plenty of time for those in the off-season.

 

[DE4life]

Except only me and Eochaid actually post once the leak link is revealed and everyone has had their say on the album.

 

[mindd]

Okay, I also did the ranking thing and the top 30 was way weirder than I expected lol

1, Colony
2, Bullet Ride
3, My Sweet Shadow
4, Clay Man
5, Trigger
6, Satellites And Astronauts
7, System
8, Reroute To Remain
9, Behind Space '99
10, Ordinary Story
11, Jotun
12, Minus
13, Leeches
14, Abnegation
15, Evil In A Closet
16, All For Me
17, Free Fall
18, Stand Ablaze
19, F(r)iend
20, A New Dawn
21, Fear Is The Weakness
22, Tilt
23, Square Nothing
24, The Quiet Place
25, Black & White
26, Suburban Me
27, The Chosen Pessimist
28, Alias
29, Embody The Invisible
30, Condemned

5 Clayman songs, 5 RTR songs, 5 STYE songs, 5 ASOP songs (I've counted Mirror's Truth EP songs as ASOP), 4 (technically 3) Colony songs, 3 SOAPF songs, 1 Subterranean song, 1 Whoracle song, 1 Come Clarity song.
No songs from Lunar Strain (although Behind Space '99 got, fittingly, 9th place), Jester Race, Siren Charms, Battles and I, the Mask.

The bottom 30 contains, unsurprisingly, almost the entirety of Battles.

138, Jester's Door
139, Foregone Pt. 2
140, Greatest Greed
141, Monsters In The Ballroom
142, Everything's Gone
143, Starforsaken
144, Bottled
145, Burn
146, Filtered Truth
147, The Attic
148, Scream
149, The End
150, We Will Remember
151, Biosphere
152, Timeless
153, Hårgalåten
154, Dead Eyes
155, Everlost (Part I)
156, Us Against The World
157, In My Room
158, Dreamscape
159, Here Until Forever
160, The Truth
161, Like Sand
162, Underneath My Skin
163, Before I Fall
164, (This Is Our) House
165, Through My Eyes
166, In This Life
167, Save Me

2 SOAPF songs, 1 Foregone song, 11 Battles songs, 4 Siren Charms songs, 4 Lunar Strain songs, 1 STYE song, 4 I, the Mask songs, 1 Come Clarity song, 2 Subterranean songs.

Highest place per album:

Colony - 1, Colony
Clayman - 2, Bullet Ride
Soundtrack To Your Escape - 3, My Sweet Shadow
Reroute To Remain - 5, Trigger
Whoracle - 11, Jotun
Come Clarity - 13, Leeches
A Sense Of Purpose - 14, Abnegation
Sounds Of A Playground Fading - 16, All For Me (lol)
Subterranean - 18, Stand Ablaze
The Jester Race - 35, The Jester Race
I, The Mask - 36, Deep Inside
Battles - 61, Wallflower
Lunar Strain - 74, Everlost (Part II) (Behind Space '99 got 9th though)
Siren Charms - 85, Paralyzed
Foregone - 106, Foregone pt.1

Albums ranked by average place:

Reroute to Remain - 29.143
Clayman - 37.455
Colony - 50.091
A Sense Of Purpose - 54.867
Soundtrack To Your Escape - 76.333
Sounds Of A Playground Fading - 68.923
Whoracle - 82.000
Come Clarity - 84.385
The Jester Race - 86.900
I, The Mask - 114.333
Subterranean - 116.200
Foregone - 116.25
Lunar Strain - 123.182
Siren Charms - 124.300
Battles - 146.714

 

[eochaid]

Except only me and Eochaid actually post once the leak link is revealed and everyone has had their say on the album.

That's why we have to trigger @Jester Slave from time to time.

 

[mindd]

By the way, had to relisten to entire Battles for that, as I don't remember crap about most songs from it, and, well, it's even worse than I remember. Sad times.

 

[eochaid]

You're a hero.

 

[GraemeSinclair]

By the way, had to relisten to entire Battles for that, as I don't remember crap about most songs from it, and, well, it's even worse than I remember. Sad times.

At least you did it - I just decided to try and remember... and then ended up relistening to it again afterwards anyway.

 

[DE4life]

I still think The End is a decent modern IF track. Points taken off for the production and children's choir, but that aside it's okay. Most of Battles is just... weird. Like IF covering another band. It's the only album in their discography I really consider inauthentic, due to Benson and his cronies being so unnecessarily involved. Fortunately Anders and Bjorn seem to feel the same way as they are quite dismissive of Battles these days and Anders has been clear that he didn't like having external influences involved from a songwriting perspective. Although that does beg the question of why they let the same people create the disgrace that is In This Life (sorry @Vjeshta ) on ITM.

 

[ciko_gfb]

We're gonna get an interview with Anders where he does track by track. It'll be interesting.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnznLWUI0Mb/

 

[ciko_gfb]

While you guys talk about Battles, I had listened couple of tracks from it. "In My Room" has the best IF solo, ever and If you dont agree with me get ready to rumble.

 

[galvanized]

Yes In My Room has a good solo. Best among the Battles songs.

 

[eochaid]

Nah. Best IF solo is System's.

 

[DE4life]

In My Room has literally the only good solo Bjorn has done since... Idk, SOAPF? Aside from In My Room are there any others since then that are anything more than generic Bjorn solo #133?

 

[eochaid]

In My Room solo has the same notes as OFTW solo but they're played as WTDSD solo. And that's it.

 

[A88]

In My Room has literally the only good solo Bjorn has done since... Idk, SOAPF? Aside from In My Room are there any others since then that are anything more than generic Bjorn solo #133?

All the Pain solo was good as well. A bit of Clayman album vibe in there.

 

[DE4life]

All the Pain solo was good as well. A bit of Clayman album vibe in there.

I genuinely didn't remember it. Just had a listen and yeah, it's okay, although as usual doesn't really feel like it fits in with the song as a whole. Track is pretty chill and then suddenly here's Bjorn with a random upbeat solo. Sure, why not.

 

[A88]

That song was fucked up by the generic Anders/Benson chorus #112.

A shame, as it is an awesome song, with a lot of cool effects and sounds, good riffs, nice solo and even some well executed cleans from Anders on those slow sections.

But in general, Bjorn should forget about writing solos. Zero creativity and technical progress.

 

[DE4life]

Well, at least Broderick seems to be shouldering more of that responsibility now.

Always said that ATP pre-chorus should be the chorus, and the chorus simply shouldn't be there.

 

[ThePhobiac]

I always thought it was the pre-chorus that stuck out as weird -- the rest of the song flows pretty naturally.

Though I guess the change in tone does act as a nice divider between the verses and the chorus and prevents the song from sounding one-note.

 

[DE4life]

Eh? The pre-chorus flows in completely naturally. The chorus is where the music literally stops for half a second and the drumming pattern drastically changes.