solace

this album is sounding REALLY great so far

he's so great!

for me it has absolutely nothing to do with wanting folksier/rootsier stuff. i feel like at best these are 1/2 assed sounding versions of songs that made RNR (which was just a good not great album to begin with). plus some of the lyrics are just atrocious. it's not awful, it just feels like he wrote most of these songs in about 10-15 minutes.

glad it's not just me.

i love that one way more than the debut myself. that was my first introduction to them tho. the debut is the only one i don't love.

fair enough. High Violet is my #1 album this year, but i'd agree it's not as good as Boxer. whereas Suburbs is my #7 album and i like it way more than Neon Bible (but not as much as Funeral obvs)

through 2 songs I already liked this way more than Hazards of Love , through 5 songs i'm digging it quite a bit, especially since i've kinda lost a ton of interest in them lately. def harkens back to Her Majesty more.

just fwiw, not that it's likely to change your mind, but i know both bands personally and I can tell you they don't

gave this a spin last night... not bad. gonna take a few more for me to really have a strong opinion one way or another though. it's certainly a very Patterson-centric record vocally, and he's certainly not my favorite DBT vocalists by any means.

pretty decent lead off track. chorus is kind of unforgettable (until the very end, which the outro is great), but i love the intro and the production sounds WAY better than Accelerate (interesting considering they're both Jacknife Lee, who i'm not that fond of).

i wish i could agree that new Basia is as good/better than the first, but I tried numerous times and besides her finally putting 'Hush' to record, it just doesn't move me nearly as much as the last one (which granted wasn't in my top 10 that year either). that said, i did kinda forget it came out this year

honestly i don't like their lineup now as much as with Rahzel & Skratch... they're still insanely talented as a band and i love them a lot still, but my 3 favorite Roots albums are from the 90's.

it's probably their best since Phrenology, but there's still a bunch of songs i don't love on it (the Joanna Newsome one for one, and the Monsters of Folk one is just OK)

just missed the cut along with Drive-By Truckers, Yeasayer, etc.

my favorites this year: The National - High VioletBeach House - Teen DreamSuperchunk - Majesty ShreddingThe Tallest Man on Earth - Wild HuntDeerhunter - Halcyon DigestArcade Fire - The SuburbsTitus Andronicus - The MonitorThe Black Keys - BrothersThe Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring NightSun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell PromisesThe Walkmen - LisbonDelta Spirit - History From BelowJustin Townes Earle - Harlem River BluesJónsi - GoAnaïs Mitchell - HadestownMaximum Balloon - Maximum BalloonJohn Legend & The Roots - Wake Up!Aziz Ansari - Intimate Moments For A Sensual EveningKany

fwiw, the reason it's $7.99 is for Record Store Day Black Friday they allowed some retailers to sell it for that price, it's normally $14-18 elsewhere for the deluxe one. i bought the purple vinyl initially myself, so i had no prob paying $7.99 for the CD + bonus disc, but i agree that is kind of a bummer. especially when, with the Alligator re-release they allowed anyone with a UPC code for the regular album to download the bonus tracks free of charge just like Wilco had done a few times. but yeah, why they didn't just do a deluxe edition right away is beyond me. but hardly the first time

also spot on.

exactly. i have to ask... for those who dig III/IV and love his post Gold output just as much, i'd be curious when/what albums of his got you into his music. it seems like the divide is pre/post Heartbreaker. i've been a pretty big fan going back to Stranger's Almanac and defended him for YEARS to his detractors, but there became a time when his actions were so juvenile and the music no longer moved me nearly enough to keep defending him. not to say there's not gems among his Cardinals records, but for me they're just not nearly on the same level as his Whiskeytown & first 2 solo albums,

prior to this new one, 29 was my least favorite Ryan album. there's 2-3 good songs, but overall it's just really really dull to me.

100% OTM

$100 says he didn't even like SpongeBob until Jeff was on the soundtrack to the movie...

agreed. while Easy Tiger is far from my favorite RA album, it at least felt like a finished product and like some thought was put into it. there's some just terrible lyrics on these III/IV songs.

i think my record is 11 shows over 9 days. i can't handle that anymore though

i found III/IV to be pretty much just chock full of generic rock that Ryan could write in his sleep. there's maybe 5 songs total between both discs i'd give above a 7/10. certainly outtake quality material. best song on disc 1 for me was already released as 'France'. RNR was way better than the songs on here.

you sound rather bitter. and fwiw, the album just snuck in my top 20, it's very good, and one of my favorite things Jeff has done since AGIB, but i agree it's not amazing. as for being interested without Jeff having worked on it, i can only speak for myself, but I've seen Mavis 4 times now, so yeah, certainly would be interested/a fan of the album without his involvement.