This is fucking brilliant
― boxedjoy, Friday, 10 May 2019 07:13 (five years ago) link
I feel like if you loved "Guppy" because it was a great pop-punk album then this isn't the album for you but if you loved it because of the great lyrics and hooks and wanted to see them go bigger, bolder and more confident, then this is everything you could want from them
― boxedjoy, Friday, 10 May 2019 07:15 (five years ago) link
IT’S GONNA BREAK MY HEART TO SEE IT BLOWN TO BITS
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:15 (five years ago) link
alfred would like this record. alfred to thread
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:18 (five years ago) link
guppy is possibly the best power pop album ive ever heard but young enough is just pretty good
― ufo, Friday, 10 May 2019 15:20 (five years ago) link
you were still just a kidyou’re a beautiful boycrushing cigarettes just to prove a point
^^ my fav part of the title track rn
― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:32 (five years ago) link
"under you" feels like a weak spot strengthened by its placement but otherwise i think i already like young enough (even) more than guppy, what a perfect progression of songs... one that cldn't fit the soft combustibility of something like "glitter", so i'm just glad we have both albums
― lowercase (eric), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:45 (five years ago) link
i do wish it wasn't so in-the-red production-wise
― lowercase (eric), Friday, 10 May 2019 15:49 (five years ago) link
― american bradass (BradNelson)
Yeah, I've had this in my head a lot recently. I think this might be their best song.
― kitchen person, Friday, 10 May 2019 16:07 (five years ago) link
People make some OTT claims for Guppy considering its a pretty great piece of 90s nostalgia and that's about it, but it clearly has a fizz that this one lacks.
The production does the new one no favours, blowing the sound up like this makes everything feel that little bit emptier.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 12 May 2019 10:33 (five years ago) link
Blown To Bits is terrific though.
― Matt DC, Sunday, 12 May 2019 10:34 (five years ago) link
Guppy really was as good as this sort of thing gets for me, a step above all the 90s bands they're drawing so heavily from
― ufo, Sunday, 12 May 2019 12:21 (five years ago) link
oh my god y’all this album is better than guppy
― american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 12 May 2019 13:20 (five years ago) link
i mean i shared y'all's reaction when i first heard "capacity" and "chatroom" but i hear that emptiness as space and atmosphere now, plus these songs are fucking great, i think their songwriting advanced considerably
― american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 12 May 2019 14:06 (five years ago) link
How could I not adore an album whose sound world exists in the space between Hole’s “Awful”, Paramore’s “Daydreaming” and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Hysteric”?
The title track destroys me.
― Tim F, Sunday, 12 May 2019 21:21 (five years ago) link
otm. also add, i think, some rilo kiley song that didn’t exist before this record (“camera”) and taylor swift’s “clean” (“hurt me”)
― american bradass (BradNelson), Sunday, 12 May 2019 22:20 (five years ago) link
I need to step away from this album. Wasn't enthralled the first listen and it's been diminishing returns since. Hopefully I'll get something out of it when I revisit it but for now I'm firmly in the fragglerock camp.
― Fetchboy, Sunday, 12 May 2019 22:51 (five years ago) link
But it so isnt.
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 12 May 2019 23:37 (five years ago) link
I've been thinking a lot of Rilo Kiley when listening to this actually - lyrically the subject matter isnt too far removed from The Execution Of All Things on eg "Capacity", also you can kinda hear how both bands have singers who've come from a performing background and bring that precision of charisma into their performance
It also makes sense because people went off Rilo Kiley when they started realising their mainstream potential too, More Adventurous is the best RK album and also the album where they became more obviously ~refined
― boxedjoy, Monday, 13 May 2019 00:41 (five years ago) link
i mean i shared y'all's reaction when i first heard "capacity" and "chatroom" but i hear that emptiness as space and atmosphere now
yeah in hindsight "capacity" was a great intro to the album bc it in particular continually shades the space w various melodic elements & the reverberating percussive punctures; and like i feel like lesser bands wld've made the chorus of "chatroom" denser, but e.g. the way the guitar seems to shift from reflective shimmer in the chorus to center of accumulation in the bridge w/o changing tone is why it's so satisfying... if guppy feels gaseous young enough is fundamentally solid; the former is maybe more formally memorable but the addition of synths here definitely doesn't feel like just expansion, they illuminate the surfaces the songs glide across (such that the rhythmic steadiness is the point-- see the way the drums build up by switching back mid-bridge on "bleach", the friction at the whim of momentum-- & also why the great pacing is esp notable). idk i think it's really impressive how they're going for something so different while still being recognizably themselves, altho it also means "this is better than that" is a hard sell
― lowercase (eric), Monday, 13 May 2019 02:00 (five years ago) link
the new album does make a couple songs on guppy feel a little aimless to me
― lowercase (eric), Monday, 13 May 2019 02:01 (five years ago) link
(well a softer word than aimless... a little less aimful, in comparison)
― lowercase (eric), Monday, 13 May 2019 02:19 (five years ago) link
this does the same thing the first album did: nice opening run of tracks, then gentle slump into mediocrity
it's decent music but no better imo. if you put the start of this album with the end of the beths album you'd have a decent 90s pop album
it seems insane to claim this is the best pop-rock/powerpop going but instead of providing loads of things i prefer i'll leave you all to it *shrug*
― imago, Monday, 13 May 2019 08:25 (five years ago) link
just provide like 3
― alpine static, Monday, 13 May 2019 09:32 (five years ago) link
speedy ortiz - foil deer for absolute starters
― imago, Monday, 13 May 2019 09:33 (five years ago) link
trust fund - bringing the backlinedoes mitski count? yessad13's solo albummike krol?
― imago, Monday, 13 May 2019 09:41 (five years ago) link
pup!
― imago, Monday, 13 May 2019 09:50 (five years ago) link
p much all of those records have nothing to do with this one besides being superficially more complicated
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2019 11:53 (five years ago) link
the pup record’s songwriting isn’t this strong
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2019 11:54 (five years ago) link
lol i need to wait til i'm not tired before commenting ig
― lowercase (eric), Monday, 13 May 2019 11:58 (five years ago) link
anyway the only comparison itt that might make me want to listen to something else instead is bc nothing touches taylor swift's best song
― lowercase (eric), Monday, 13 May 2019 12:01 (five years ago) link
lol i was reaching a little for that comparison point. “hurt me” still sounds like a t. swift song though
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2019 12:07 (five years ago) link
Young Enough makes me madder every time I play it. This is the final time. Y'all enjoy, but if anyone says it's objectively better than Guppy I'm cursing your family.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 13 May 2019 14:08 (five years ago) link
I think this is probably a lot like how I felt about Last Splash vs Pod.
― o. nate, Monday, 13 May 2019 14:15 (five years ago) link
it’s objectively better than guppy
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2019 14:29 (five years ago) link
imagine being mad at this record
― american bradass (BradNelson), Monday, 13 May 2019 14:30 (five years ago) link
imagine being mad
― don't mock my smock or i'll clean your clock (silby), Monday, 13 May 2019 14:54 (five years ago) link
I definitely do prefer Young Enough to Guppy already. It kind of reminds me of how I felt about the second Japanese Breakfast album (which ended up as my favourite album of 2017). Everything feels so much bolder, especially with how Michelle and Eva get more personal using the music to talk about recent traumatic experiences (Michelle losing her mum and Eva coming out of a terrible relationship). They're both very cathartic and moving records in that way. Even though they both have more polished production, the hooks and songwriting are still very much there and sound like a natural development of what made the debuts so strong. It's no surprise that they're buddies with Michelle directing the Capacity video.
Right now, Young Enough is my album of the year. I really didn't see that coming after the singles and my first couple of plays of the album.
― kitchen person, Monday, 13 May 2019 14:56 (five years ago) link
Charly Bliss aren't very original as a band and probably never will be, but within the borders of the power pop/indie genre they are quite good at what they do.
Maybe the debut is better than the new one, maybe not. The differences aren't that big.It is (and will probably always be for this band) more or less more of the same thing.
― nostormo, Monday, 13 May 2019 15:32 (five years ago) link
one thing is for sure is there is music involved and you can definitely hear it with ears
― alpine static, Monday, 13 May 2019 19:26 (five years ago) link
On first listen, I'm kind of in love with it.
― husked, tonal wails (irrational), Monday, 13 May 2019 21:07 (five years ago) link
No idea if or when I'll prefer this to Guppy but so far loving the hooks, phonetically and otherwise. Shades of Joe Pernice at his "fell over ourselves all summer" peak.
― geoffreyess, Monday, 13 May 2019 22:53 (five years ago) link
the best love songs are about self-abnegation so tbh "Under You" totally rules
― don't mock my smock or i'll clean your clock (silby), Monday, 13 May 2019 23:07 (five years ago) link
think my favourites here are "camera", "chatroom" and "hard to believe", still a really solid & enjoyable album
― ufo, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 05:01 (five years ago) link
couple of spins and this is good, not sure yet if it's better than Guppy but there are some moments that suggest it could be. Title track is gorgeous and heartbreaking, also really liking "Camera" and "Hurt Me".
― Roz, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 05:52 (five years ago) link
oh god, i adore this, hooks are just heart bursting. best compliment i can give is that it's the only thing recently that's managed to tear me away from the go-betweens. these first two records are an incredible feat.
― devvvine, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 13:05 (five years ago) link
i didn't connect with the songs they prereleased individually but i am in love with this album and how it's sequenced. "blown to bits" is an incredible opener.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 16 May 2019 02:53 (five years ago) link
I've been listening to this on my commutes and it is simply fabulous. Gigantic hooks, smart lyrics, slick production. One of those albums where I'm looking forward to my next chance to crank it.
― A. Begrand, Thursday, 16 May 2019 04:01 (five years ago) link
This feels like a good-to-great pop record that's really hamstrung by the laziness and obviousness of its production choices. Like, I find myself weirdly resentful of the way synths are used on records like this, like they're just there to add ballast and when you get to the end of the record you realise you haven't heard a single interesting or distinctive sound. Everything's blown up to such an extent that the record feels flat rather than big.
Also like a lot of bands who feel more about energy and momentum rather than rhythm it feels like they struggle to keep things interesting when the tempo drops a little bit. Like a song like Young Enough could really work with a different approach but it feels like a big stadium song that's constructed in the way that you might build a wall, just thudding and leaden and predictable.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 18 May 2019 14:34 (five years ago) link
^
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 18 May 2019 14:35 (five years ago) link