The Beths - Future Me POLLs Me

Whoops, that should me *Less Than Thou, not "Though." Mods, are you able to change that?

ttl trck

"little death" closely followed by "river run"

here are my tiers

- Great No One, Future Me Hates Me
- Not Running, Little Death, Happy Unhappy
- Uptown Girl, River Run, Whatever, Less Than Thou
- You Wouldn't Like Me (can't stand the section with hand claps, which makes it sound like an ad for a cleaning product)

*sounds of hand clap section of "You Wouldn't Like Me"*

I have been a mess of late
And you wouldn't be impressed
But I've got something on my chest

*camera zooms in on a big sloppy joe stain on a sweater*

I've been stressed of late
But please don't try to guess whats on my mind
You probably won't like what you'll find

*mom tries soaking and scrubbing the stain, but it won't work*

Oh you, you wouldn't like me
If you saw what was inside me
Yeah you, you wouldn't like me
At all

*Instrumental sounds as the camera switches to a close-up of new Ultra cleaning plus with aloe*

i think i liked little death and the title track the most, but thinking about not running and river run pt. 1 is making this decision even harder that it already was.

i had to rank my fave albums of the decade a few weeks ago and this made the top 10

all songs are really good or better BUT Little Death still wins

also, as a side thought: it will be really interesting to see if they can capture the same magic again on LP2.

The new songs they played were pretty solid, slotted right in.

tossup between 2 and 5

Title track - but Little Death and River Run close in the running. Great power pop record/fun live band - wish them much success.

You Wouldn't Like Me is great!

Not Running, Little Death and Happy Unhappy is probably my favourite run of songs on any album this decade. I could vote for any of those, but that awesome double chorus of Little Death puts it just ahead.

Just listened to this album at the weekend. Still incredible.

"Not Running" with the title track coming a close second. This is definitely top 10 of the decade for me.

i voted "not running"

Decided to make some more detailed notes:

• Great No One - Not a standout on this album, but a good introduction to what the band does. Takes a while to get going, but once the harmony vocals come in it hits its stride.
• Future Me Hates Me - The verse melody might be the highlight for me here, but this whole song is just so damn well-crafted. Also, is the kiwi accent more prominent on any other song on this album? ("pretty smaht", "I'm definseless"). The only thing that keeps this from being my favorite song of all time is the slightly annoying repetitiveness of the word "future" in the chorus.
• Uptown Girl - Big, dumb pop-punk, that wouldn't be out of place on a Green Day album. Provides a nice contrast to some of the more minor key tracks, but not one of my favorites.
• You Wouldn't Like Me - I'm a sucker for handclaps, so I'm hooked in right at the start. Nice contrast between the dark lyrics and sunny major chords. But then those backup vocals are a little too barbershop, and the rhythm changes keep interrupting the momentum.
• Not Running - Simple chords and melody here, but this song just drives and chugs and builds and is completely irresistible. This one speaks directly to my amygdala. There's an argument to be made that the drummer is the MVP on this track (on many of these tracks really). At the end when they sing different parts of the song on top of each other in a kind of round, and that trick gets me every time.
• Little Death - A nice showcase for Elizabeth's melody and vocals, especially since the music drops out in the chorus to spotlight her. I can see from the comments so far that it's a favorite, but the yodeled hook just doesn't do it for me. I'm no musicologist, but it seems to land on the wrong notes -- rather than resolve, it hits notes that aren't in the underlying chord (blue notes?).
• Happy Unhappy - It took me forever to take this song seriously because it starts with that bubblegum harmony bit. But the chorus makes up for all sins.
• River Run: Lvl 1 - Another strong contender. The puzzle pieces fit together so well here: arpeggio + skittering drums -> big chorus -> bigger 2nd chorus. Then at 3:20 is just goes widescreen.
• Whatever - I'm surprised this one hasn't been mentioned yet ITT. The band obviously thinks highly of it, since it's the only song to get carried over from their EP.
• Less Than Thou - Didn't pay much attention to this one at first, since it seemed slight compared to everything that came before, and the semi-wordless chorus doesn't really draw attention to itself. It's definitely grown on me though.

Also, can we agree that the album artwork and band name aren't doing them any favors?

Not a bad song here but I'm torn between Little Death and Not Running.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

how i love it when "little death" seriously gets going after the line "you say my name" around one minute in. that chorus is really kicking ass. but this album is gold from start to finish.

title track!

Hoping I’m not the only person voting Whatever! That song is just great hook after great book

i can't even with this

move to cancel and go again gradually with tournament-style brackets

track 1 the way she says "world" near the end... well how can anything possibly top that!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I could've gone with Great No One, Future Me Hates Me, Not Running, Little Death, Happy Unhappy, River Run, Whatever, or Less Than Thou. I voted Less Than Thou cuz recency bias

Have only just realised that Less Than Thou might be the best song on here.

"You Wouldn't Like Me" is my favourite.