Has anyone heard 'Transistor Radio' by M. Ward?

There's also this thread: anybody heard M.Ward?

anyone heard the upcoming one "hold time"?

No! Would love to though. Really looking forwards to it, loved She and Him which was great to tide-over between albums.

sad to say i wasn't mad on it. he seems to have decided not to include the pedal steel guitar (a facet of his music i thought was particularly affecting), and tried to get more instrumentation but somehow it all takes away from his voice and lyrics. don't take my word for it though of course.

I really liked the Pedal steel guitar. Is he drowned out by the use of more instruments?

yeah pretty much. i had trouble hearing his voice and the whole production is muddy. there's also a kind fo pointless cover of "Oh lonesome me", which was practically designed for him to sing (as opposed to Let's Dance and that one Beach Boys cover he did which were more imaginative choices). it's a shame cos i do really love everything else he's done. Hopefully it's a transition album and the next one will have better production.

Is it the final version that you heard? Maybe it's still in need of some mixing?

That's very sad to hear that he is having a bit of a blip. To be honest after each great album there's a bit of a disppointing follow up:

Post-War, 2006 - great
Transistor Radio, 2005 - very good but not as great
Duet for Guitars #2, 2004 - pretty great
Transfiguration of Vincent, 2003 - Not so great, not bad just not so great
End of Amnesia, 2001 - great

According to my badly thought out there and knee jerk reactions that this album is not fantastic makes perfect sense. QED etc etc

it was a preview copy for press. i'm hoping it was a final version, or the review i wrote will be very unfair.

I liked Transistor Radio best followed by Transfiguration best to be honest. Post War was okay. Haven't heard the others.

It's cool man, you're just wrong is all :)

For me, Transfiguration stands head and shoulders above everything else. Post-War had a handful of good songs, but also a handful of really BAD songs. Transistor was OK ... Actually haven't heard all of the She & Him record. He's super-talented though, I think.

Transfiguration I didn't really like. That said cover of "Let's Dance" is incredible.

She and Him is very good, there are one or two fantastic tracks such as "Why do you let me stay here?"

Duet for guitars came out in 2002, a year before Transfiguration. Post War is my favourite and Transfiguration is a close second. the rest i like pretty much equally.

i didn't like the She and Him record one bit.

although i'm v surprised to hear that the problem with the new one is the production. his records always sound so great.

Ah, that will teach me to copy and paste without checking u_u

End of Amnesia > Post war > Duet for Guitars > Transfiguration > Transistor

i didn't like the She and Him record one bit.

Why? Just curious to be honest. It was the voice that put me off at first. Once I realised that it wasn't a M Ward record I liked it a lot more...

i didn't like the voice and the songs just seemed weak. i'm not sure i can remember much about it though tbh.

Duet for Guitars #2 originally came out in 1999, not 2004 or 2002. It's the first M. Ward album.

:D

I have it at home. I am deeply ashamed at this error. My theory has collapsed brought down by wild supposition's mortal enemy: fact.

i'm not really feeling "hold time". a couple of very good songs and several decent ones. the highlight of the record is actually the instumental "outro".

having said that i wasn't too fussed by "post war" on release and it turned out to be my favourite record of that year.

I like Star of Leo a lot! Low quality version so I think I'm missing a lot. Can't wait to buy and put on a bit louder. Enjoy the slight glam rock of Never had nobody like you. There's a good amount of his earlier albums, there's still the obsession with lost love and the past (gad, he must have had his heart broken something rotten by an octogenarian or something). Rave on appears to be his drinking song of this album. Good. Will listen to it a couple more times when I'm not doing housework but so far I like it a lot.

my barrier with this is maybe that post war's calling card "poison cup" is utterly perfect in every way. a plea for forgiveness that in 2 minutes and 43 seconds conjures up the entirety of a relationship from the start without actually telling you anything about it. if you think i'm overrating it you might well be right because i think it's one of the greatest songs ever written. i'm not joking! i can't listen to it once. i have to hit the repat button over and over again and i'm someone who rarely does that.

or rather, not a plea for forgiveness but a delcaration of forgiveness.

I completely understand. I've listened to it 4 times (enough I say!) and it is very good. My weakness on that album is Chinese Democracy. Wonderful.

I am honestly an intelligent person, I just get a bit gushy about M. Ward sadly enough...

(never trust someone who claims they're intelligent. They're usually wrong)

What the fuck has happened to this guy? He used to be one of my favourite singer/songwriters and now he's just pedalling this drab drab boogie-blues stuff. Saw him at Primavera earlier this year and it was a snooze. What happened?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2011/10/she_and_him_christmas_album_a_l.jpg

ah. shayshay la fem.

Today's Undertaking

A mighty voice
From out the clouds
To me announced
Today's undertaking

He said go build a song
40 heartbeats long
And sacrifice it
For your love

So this one comes from
High above

There have been other songs
From out these strings
But they came out wrong
Don't be mistaken

But this one comes from
High above

Yeah this one is dedicated to you

this song is perfect and beautiful, i think.