Oh wow, I figured everyone here hated it. I love GSMF.

it’s great, you rubes!

I like GSMF, I always enjoyed that it parodies a "grunge" song

GEMF is such an irritating song. I can’t stand it.

It a great song.

Gonna See My Friend is better if the whole album tossed away like that - had theme been consistent, that would have made sense. Instead, it seems half baked on an album that is part half baked, half overwrought.

Johnny Guitar suffers from the same problem. It doesn’t belong in the same sonic circles as Amongst the Waves, Unthought Known, and Just Breathe. It does belong with GSMF, The Fixer, and Supersonic. They should have gone in a more singular direction, or turned it into two EPs that show both sides of the band. That could have elevated some of this:

EP 1: GSMF, Got Some, The Fixer, Johnny Guitar, Supersonic

EP 2: Just Breathe, Amongst the Waves, Unthought Known, Speed of Sound, Force of Nature, The End

that's actually a pretty fair critique of BS, and not one we hear too often

or ever?

I mean I have never listened to the album separated like that but I feel as if both would benefit from the separation.

Note: the only song I think works on either or both sides of this is Force of Nature.

yeah that's a nice post; I've felt what liebzz is saying but just didn't know how to articulate it; some songs just clash with other songs and the problem with them is their framing; some of these songs would be improved by being on a different album

Just a thought would imagine taking the same exercise in Lightning Bolt and then reshuffling the two albums into those two coherent pieces. I haven’t tried it but I feel like we might be able to do it.

But Backspacer I think needs this at the least.

Lightning Bolt might work too

I've done this very thing!

Great RM minds. If only we could solve the Ukraine crisis instead…

More hugs.

It seems like your dividing line here is "uptempo" and "midtempo." What am I missing?

the whole thing should've sounded like Pearl Jam filtered through the Cars.

I think SoS could fit with the first group.

I thought The End might fit with the first group. It’s not the tempo as much as the approach. The uptempo songs on the album sort of live in this space where they aren’t overly earnest, and reflect a tossed off sense of humor that I think wanted to be Neil Young’s Re-Ac-Tor in a way. Kind of easy breezy songs that sound like Pearl Jam casually popping off.

The latter group, that happened to be a bit more mid-tempo, feature a band that’s reaching for big places but mostly not reaching them. Unthought Known and Amongst the Waves vying for the U2 stadium ready prize, Just Breathe reaching for the wedding slow dance, Speed of Sound trying to be Sleight of Hand, etc. Force of Nature for some reason seems in the middle.