Seeds We Sow -- First Impressions

[mylittledemon]

thats the... coolest... f**king squirrel... Ever.

[TrueFaith77]

And you guys don't think Jam/Lewis would do a good job on a Mac album?

[Dodfather]

Originally Posted by Silver Springs

Surely now that you've made this warning, we'll always suspect it lol? Oh well. Doesn't impact us much. Just means that our daily mascot will be a baseball bat. Just. In. Case.


Oh. And a Squirrel. No particular reason for said Squirrell, but he wanted to come along because he heard there would be Beer.

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

thats the... coolest... f**king squirrel... Ever.

Agreed! Oh and yes, you may suspect it but one benefit of being just that few years older is that we've had longer to come up with fiendish, badass ways of doing all kinds of freaky s*** in the name of revenge.

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

And you guys don't think Jam/Lewis would do a good job on a Mac album?

Now there's an idea....

[shackin'up]

Third day of listening: It's a small wonder; the diversity of songs, the rich melodies, the impeccable idiosyncratic production, the guts to do something different in every frigging song, using repetition in lyrics with always a slight addition/change musically, the rythmtracks that are highly original and different from eachother, it's all incredible. And the thing just floats. I don't have a fave on this record yet. It's simply stunning as a whole.

I don't know what happened with the guy, but he just HAS to go on with his homerecordings, although you could also state that he coul retire after this achievement. It's that amazingly good.

[Silver Springs]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

Third day of listening: It's a small wonder; the diversity of songs, the rich melodies, the impeccable idiosyncratic production, the guts to do something different in every frigging song, using repetition in lyrics with always a slight addition/change musically, the rythmtracks that are highly original and different from eachother, it's all incredible. And the thing just floats. I don't have a fave on this record yet. It's simply stunning as a whole.

I don't know what happened with the guy, but he just HAS to go on with his homerecordings, although you could also state that he coul retire after this achievement. It's that amazingly good.

I've always loved Lindsey's ability to look past the conventional and do his own thing. It's what I try to do in my art work (you would NEVER catch me painting a watercolour or a landscape, for example. And I've been known to go skip diving in order to find materials worth using, a past example being an old, discarded toaster ). It's almost a trademark of Lindsey's to push the boundaries, and nine times out of ten it pays off for him in my opinion. I'm so glad this album sticks with the trend.

Not that we want him to retire. I'm sure he wouldn't be able to, anyway. He'd probably stay in his studio working until he's unable to even use the lavatory unaided lol.

[elle]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

Third day of listening: It's a small wonder; the diversity of songs, the rich melodies, the impeccable idiosyncratic production, the guts to do something different in every frigging song, using repetition in lyrics with always a slight addition/change musically, the rythmtracks that are highly original and different from eachother, it's all incredible. And the thing just floats. I don't have a fave on this record yet. It's simply stunning as a whole.

I don't know what happened with the guy, but he just HAS to go on with his homerecordings, although you could also state that he coul retire after this achievement. It's that amazingly good.

so my first impressions in terms of favorite and a bit less favorite tracks:

• in our own time - perfect all around - imho the best one on the CD
• illumination and one take - love how these two came out, love it when he gets slightly political in a song like in one take (i think one take is almost as perfect as IOOT, but in a very different way) - will one take replace i'm so afraid in concerts? he has to do one take on the upcoming tour!
• rock away blind - ultimate LB, really hope he does this one on the tour too (maybe it can replace shut us down - sorry Gerald!)
• she smiled sweetly - still beautiful, still love it, but i actually thought that the way he pronounces the words on GoS version was just perfect - so i like the verses from the original version better, although i probably prefer the stripped down chorus of this one
• gone too far - i actually like this one, so OOTC-like, he can use that one together w/ another OOTC song in concert
  
• that's the way love goes - screams "it goes, it goes" are the only thing i like better than in the live version - live version was my favorite new song. since i don't know how to express this eloquently, for the lack of the better term i'm sorry to say but TWLG is too slowed down and pop-ified for my taste on the album when compared to live. i'm so happy the live version is also coming out soon!
  
• least favorite - stars are crazy.

such diversity of songs, and they all fit so well together!

[michelej1]

I like what you guys are saying about the diversity of songs.

Obviously, we had the ballads. Then I was struck by how different One Take and Illumination were from the rest, but I didn't know if there might be 5 songs or so that just melded together in a pleasant, but indistinguishable blend. Glad to hear that's not the case.

Michele

[shackin'up]

No. it's a unique set that hangs together very organicly, to my ears. Against the opinion of elle, I think that TTWLG is a great studiotrack that really rocks. Ofcourse it worked perfectly live, but I really feel he's captured that rockfeel in the production.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

No. it's a unique set that hangs together very organicly, to my ears. Against the opinion of elle, I think that TTWLG is a great studiotrack that really rocks. Ofcourse it worked perfectly live, but I really feel he's captured that rockfeel in the production.

I don't want to tempt fate and have Elle contradict me, but I'm heartened by the fact that she didn't say anything about Lindsey's voice detracting from the songs in her post. I think that's a problem both she and I had when we heard samples.

I'm excited by the admiration from the first listeners and even more hyped for the tour. You know, there are songs like YKINW that the general public doesn't know, but they hear them live and are galvanized by the song's energy anyway. That's how I feel this tour is going to be. The people are going to react to the excitement of the new songs. It's like I never appreciated Doing What I Can until I heard it live and I think at least half of the SWS songs will have that same kind of spark in concert.

Michele

[mylittledemon]

I actually think his voice is stronger on this album than the previous two.

I don't particularly like "Thats the Way Love Goes" either... But shackin up is right... the album just floats and has a great cohesiveness.

Favourite tracks:
Illumination
Seeds We Sow
In Our Own Time
Rock Away Blind
Gone Too Far
When She Comes Down
End of Time
She Smiled Sweetly

That's The Way That Love goes bothers me in the sense that it sounds like something you'd heard at a carnival. It's a little too bright in it's acoustics. Same goes for One Take... it almost sounds like he's gonna start rapping at one point. haha... They aren't bad tracks, just ones I'd imagine I'll be skipping over.

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I don't want to tempt fate and have Elle contradict me, but I'm heartened by the fact that she didn't say anything about Lindsey's voice detracting from the songs in her post. I think that's a problem both she and I had when we heard samples.

I'm excited by the admiration from the first listeners and even more hyped for the tour. You know, there are songs like YKINW that the general public doesn't know, but they hear them live and are galvanized by the song's energy anyway. That's how I feel this tour is going to be. The people are going to react to the excitement of the new songs. It's like I never appreciated Doing What I Can until I heard it live and I think at least half of the SWS songs will have that same kind of spark in concert.

Michele

I'm sure you're right about the tour.

About the voicetrickery: Lindsey takes you with him in his world here. Maybe if you compile a mix-disc with two LB songs in between other tracks of other bands, you'll hear it. But on this album the highly cultivated sound sounds almost natural, if you know what I mean.

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I don't want to tempt fate and have Elle contradict me, but I'm heartened by the fact that she didn't say anything about Lindsey's voice detracting from the songs in her post. I think that's a problem both she and I had when we heard samples.

yes, unlike shackin'up and Peestie, i am not very enamored by the voice trickery. and maybe if we haven't heard the samples first i might be somewhat disappointed now? but i didn't notice it that much the first few listens, although my overall impression is that throughout most of the album he sounds more like his young voice then his current one - and i do like his current voice better. but must be that i learned to love the studio trickery aspect of it, b/c it doesn't bother me when i hear the whole record together - like Gerald says, it works here. and as i mentioned before, it bothers me even less since i know we'll also get live versions. in some songs, he seems to be singing in his natural voice (at least to my ears) - didn't have a chance to listen to it enough yet - but she smiled sweetly, illumination, one take come to mind - and i'm grateful for that.

Originally Posted by michelej1

I'm excited by the admiration from the first listeners and even more hyped for the tour. You know, there are songs like YKINW that the general public doesn't know, but they hear them live and are galvanized by the song's energy anyway. That's how I feel this tour is going to be. The people are going to react to the excitement of the new songs. It's like I never appreciated Doing What I Can until I heard it live and I think at least half of the SWS songs will have that same kind of spark in concert.

yes, exactly what i was thinking - several of these new songs rock so hard that YKINW cannot even compare - we loved them on first hearing ever, before they were floated anywhere on youtube or different sites, before there were any samples, and when they were completely unfamiliar to us, remember? yes, we are hardcore lindsey fans, but still. btw, i do love studio version of illumination better than live, same with IOOT. and one take - everything on it just works together for me, even though i didn't like it that much when i just heard the chorus on the trailer - but the verses, the topic/words, guitar shred, the end - i think it all works together perfectly.

for TTWLG, there are slight differences even in the guitar parts from the live version, and i just think that everything in the live version was perfect, so maybe that's why i don't like the album version as much (but there's the whole pop-ified thing too).

[elle]

Originally Posted by shackin'up

About the voicetrickery: Lindsey takes you with him in his world here. Maybe if you compile a mix-disc with two LB songs in between other tracks of other bands, you'll hear it. But on this album the highly cultivated sound sounds almost natural, if you know what I mean.

that might be it! but i'm not completely sure, i think he didn't play that much with his natural voice on some of the songs - my guess is b/c those songs / topics required deeper voice, so he left it that way.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by elle

yes, unlike shackin'up and Peestie, i am not very enamored by the voice trickery. and maybe if we haven't heard the samples first i might be somewhat disappointed now? but i didn't notice it that much the first few listens, although my overall impression is that throughout most of the album he sounds more like his young voice then his current one - and i do like his current voice better.

It's funny that that one interviewer just thought that Lindsey was singing in a higher range (as if) and didn't seem to realize that his voice was sped up. I guess that was what Lindsey was going for and it must work for most ears.

I guess that's an improvement over the UTS raspy sound that alienated some. But you're right, maybe since we heard the clips first that that softened the shock.

Michele

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

It's funny that that one interviewer just thought that Lindsey was singing in a higher range (as if) and didn't seem to realize that his voice was sped up. I guess that was what Lindsey was going for and it must work for most ears.

yes, even reading the comments on this board, i'm surprised that like that interviewer many people comment on the sound of his voice on this album as that really is how he sounds naturally. i'm assuming many of these people were primarily here because of FM or SN, and maybe that's why they don't notice it that much. so maybe aside from just several of us, most people don't even notice it? and then some do notice it, but like it that way, and appreciate his play in the studio...