Manchester Orchestra - The Valley of Vision ep

[sal paradise]

Intended as a follow up to a black mile to the surface. Anyone listened to it yet?

Really into the sound, except maybe the last track. Feels like a really complete piece of work. Super chilled out, yet a bit more instant than the million masks of god (an album that just gets better and better with each listen, imo).

[JSett]

Intended as a follow up to a black mile to the surface. Anyone listened to it yet?

Really into the sound, except maybe the last track. Feels like a really complete piece of work. Super chilled out, yet a bit more instant than the million masks of god (an album that just gets better and better with each listen, imo).

I didn't know they had a new record out. After Cope I kinda lost interest - the mixing on that record was horrible - and the records I heard after that were kinda boring IMHO

I liked when they had riffs

[sal paradise]

Intended as a follow up to a black mile to the surface. Anyone listened to it yet?

Really into the sound, except maybe the last track. Feels like a really complete piece of work. Super chilled out, yet a bit more instant than the million masks of god (an album that just gets better and better with each listen, imo).

I didn't know they had a new record out. After Cope I kinda lost interest - the mixing on that record was horrible - and the records I heard after that were kinda boring IMHO

I liked when they had riffs

Ah, I thought Cope was their best record by a long way when it came out. I found the first 3 albums to be pretty inconsistent. There was like a 5 year gap from Cope to Black Mile, and they’ve always changed their sound album to album. But yeah, I love Thrice & AFI, so of course I’d love self-indulgent, gothy, pop-rock

[JSett]

Ah, I thought Cope was their best record by a long way when it came out. I found the first 3 albums to be pretty inconsistent. There was like a 5 year gap from Cope to Black Mile, and they’ve always changed their sound album to album. But yeah, I love Thrice & AFI, so of course I’d love self-indulgent, gothy, pop-rock

The songs on Cope were great, but I found the mixing to be so distracting. It made no sense to make the drums so quiet... especially as their drummer is so damn good.

I've seen them a ton of times over the last decade or more (I first saw them touring Mean Everything, whatever year that was) and the Cope songs sound way better live than on record. Albums 1 to 3 are all pretty different but still have a similar vibe and texture, Cope had good songs but shitty mixing, Hope was just an interesting experiment...but Black Mile seemed totally devoid of any real hooks - which is something they previously excelled at.

I saw them in late 2019 at a festival in Chicago and the set was amazing (especially the light show they had). They played a solid mix of bangers from all their eras and it worked well...until they closed with some washy non-song off Black Mile and I wandered off to do something more interesting like pay $20 for a slice of pizza

[sal paradise]

I’d never noticed how guitar heavy the mix is until I just listened to a few tracks. Relying on heavy reverb to sit the drums in the mix. Do a grunge influenced album, I guess.