Now the sequencing of songs was great. Coming down went perfectly after the party/after party. The only song that was out of place was wicked games because of the feelings over the girl. But the album was a great blend of get high, party till we pass out, wake up, do it all over again. Thursday was his most conceptual album, when he was literally telling the story of a relationship with a particular girl. EOS was kinda of week to me. The DD while good was meh, dont want to hear MJ remakes. Plus there was way too many tracks of him bragging like he was trey songs and slow piano ballads that lack the energy/mood of his previous two. Thats why I'm glad Doc is back in the fold. I hope he reconciles with Rose also.
You're right about "The Party and the After Party" and "Coming Down" fitting well together, I'm just saying that those two songs would have been a fantastic way to close the album. You hear those two songs, then it immediately goes to "Loft Music"? Why? It kind of killed the mood of the album for me. You could cut "Loft Music" (One of his weakest tracks) and "The Knowing" (Great, yet misplaced) and really lose nothing at all. You'd have a tighter 37 minutes there, rather than a tight 37 minutes followed by a semi-pointless 12.
To me, the bragging had a very calculated point on
Echoes of Silence: It was a way for the character to assure himself that he wasn't as pathetic and able to be played as the women he abused for his own pleasure. "Same Old Song," "The Fall" and "Next" work perfectly as self-denial that gets ripped apart on the title track where all of that gets exposed when the chick is leaving HIM and HE'S begging rather than the other way around. Everything in the damn trilogy and especially that album ("D.D." works here too, as it's a recontextualization within the narrative of the Balloons trilogy rather than just a straight cover period. Plus, it just seems like you don't like it because it's an MJ cover rather than the fact that it was bad or anything, which smacks of bad criticism to me. No disrespect) built to that one song. THAT'S how you work sequencing on an album.
Aesthetically, it's much more fleshed out, affective and lush in it's sounds to me than the previous two albums. And yet, it had a lot of nuance that the more bombastic
House of Balloons didn't have. I thought the production of all three fit the themes (
HoB: Introduction to the poisonous character of the songs and his tendencies.
Thursday: More personal narrative showing the repercussions of his actions on those women he plays, as well as how he reacts to it. This, in my opinion, is why this album is much more subdued and empty in its production.
EoS: Motivations are revealed; shyt stops being fun and starts destroying lives and he starts reflecting, ending with his own tricks being played on him and a role reversal). I just liked
EoS the most and thought its concept was the most well fleshed out.
(Goddamn, this got long...)
Nice to see McKinney back, but don't hold your breath on Zodiac coming back. I would, however, like to see Abel do something with Clams Casino. "The Fall" was fantastic, and the
Instrumentals series has been nothing but a pleasure to listen to. I think they could mesh very well over the course of an album.
and as a person who has no twitter his personality is something that i dont care bout. i just want music.
