My Father's Son
Infallible
Swallowed Whole
Pendulum
Yellow Moon
Sleeping By Myself
Sirens
Lightning Bolt
Future Days
Getaway
Let the Records Play
Mind Your Manners

That's become such a default criticism--"oh, it sucks, it doesn't go anywhere"--what is this constant obsession with movement? Some of the best music in the world just finds a comfortable spot and lingers there. Part of most journeys, after all, is getting to where you're going and spending some time there.

Pendulum
Infallible
My Fathers Son
Lightning Bolt
Getaway
Mind Your Manners
Sirens
Swallowed Whole
Yellow Moon
Future Days
Let The Records Play
Sleeping By Myself

SBM truly is an abomination.

4-5 stars songs

Pendulum
Infallible
My Father's Son
Getaway

3-4 stars

Let The Records Play
Sirens
Yellow Moon
Sleeping By Myself
Lightning Bolt
Mind Your Manners
Swallowed Whole

2 stars

Future Days

Spoken from a man who I'm sure has spent way too long (if that is at all possible) listening to Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands, I'm Not There and/or She's Your Lover Now.

A song doesn't have to go anywhere, but if there is no movement it has to create a space you really feel like lingering in for a while. And so I'm not surprised this is a common criticism (and it's one I've made many times). When a song moves a song has multiple ways to draw the listener in, and once they're in the other parts of the songs they may have liked less are elevated by the song as a whole.

Swallowed Whole may be a good example of that. I suspect for a lot of listeners the first 90 seconds or so (before the song gets fast) are the worst part of the song. They like it fine because it sets up the lift off, but if the song lingered in that space they'd lose interest. Since all or none was just bumped, that song would probably be treated a lot more like thumbing my way without a solo to give the song a destination that improves the journey. Not for everyone, obviously. If you really like the journey you don't care if it ends.


I love Cold Confession and am happy to linger in that space.

I think right now the only change I might make would be to swap Lightning Bolt and Sirens. It's 4 of the 6 fast songs in a row, but Lbolt's intro follows the end of MFS quite nicely, and the L-bolt fade out eases into Sirens. And since it's following a pretty expansive ending the hugeness of Siren's beginning doesn't feel out of place.

I wonder what some of the earlier tracklistings looked like, the album as released was the fifth revision (if that image from the promo video is any indication).

which image?

There was a close up on a CD from the mastering session that said v5

oh, yeah. right. No tracklist though? Nothing like that Binaural thing?

After more listens...

1) Pendulum. Still my favorite.
2) Lightning Bolt. This song just won't leave my head. I want to hear it over and over again, so I'm taking that as I must really like it.
3) Mind Your Manners. I was initially "meh" with this one, but it's really grown on me. Like LB, I want to keep listening.
4) My Father's Son. Cool song, and I love the atmospheric guitar tones. Also, the bass is pretty sweet.
5) Getaway. I like the groove to this one. Solid opener.
6) Infallible. This one is still growing on me, but I like the beat (a little Tremor Christ-ish), and the guitar tones (a little You Are-ish).
7) Sirens. I don't care what the haters say, I think this is a good song. Not great, but it's pretty good, and I like Ed's vocal delivery a lot.
8) Yellow Moon. I'm still not 100% sold on this but it was initially down around #10 so it's moving up.
9) Sleeping By Myself. It's fun. I like this way better than the uke version.
10) Swallowed Whole. This one just doesn't do much for me. I don't hate it, but this one, even more so than SBM, sounds like an Ed solo song.
11) Future Days. Not bad, not great. Better than The End.
12) Let The Records Play. They should have dropped this one for Of The Earth. I actually like the music, but the chorus is pretty bad. It kinda reminds me of the rock-opera phase of the Kinks. Lots of cheese on this one.

Good review.

I think the biggest issue with LTRP is that it just seems a bit outta place. Once upon a time if Pearl Jam tried to play the blues it came off like Rival or Half Full and not like some average bar jam band.

Or, Red Mosquito.

LTRP isn't completely terrible, but I don't know if I'll ever embrace it. That chorus really ruins it for me.

Yep, I keep listening to this, but damn that chorus section is horrid. Just completely takes me out of whatever this song has going for it. The bridge section is really nice though - why couldn't they make something out of it?

Stone should have kept "Let the Records Play" for one of his own albums (I know Eddie wrote the words, but still)--at the very least they should have let him sing it on the record here. In his hands it would have been the dorky but well-meaning throwaway it was intended to be--the perfect B-side to "I Need Something Different" or "Moonlander." As it is, the song demands a camp factor that Eddie just doesn't consistently pull off. Probably "LB"'s biggest missed opportunity.

I agree. I enjoyed this song for a while, but then I realised I enjoyed it for what it was trying, rather than what it was achieving. I admire the attempt, but they should have known by now that Ed couldn't pull of camp 70's glam if he tried. In that sense, it's very much like The Fixer, or plenty of songs on Backspacer, in which Ed's performance is just far too "straight" to actually sound like he's enjoying himself. Stone should be singing this, for sure, but even then, it's not the right song for Brendan O'Brien's production.

Also, the song was much better when I thought the first line was "When the kingdom comes, he puts his red dress on..."

It should be more like Satan's Bed. That kind of swagger might have worked.