classic record, but not quite a benchmark disc. just a bit of a shame about that anticlimactic ending....
Oziel Esparza
The climaxes on the first and third track are amazing, and even goodbye desolate railyard has a good intro but the choir is so underwhelming. They don't even seem to appear much on this record other than the first and last part of the last track
deathtokoalas
i don't want to pigeonhole this band to the crescendos, as i'd likely get a fish thrown at me next time i see them. the process of escaping the post-rock label was something they seem to have felt very strongly about. and i suppose it required some experiments that are arguably still ongoing. i mean, some of the best moments on their more recent discs are tied into a more conventional epic or even "alternative" rock style structure. they're an effective rock band when they want to be. they're more than a crescendo. but, for a few years in the mid 00s they seemed to want to diversify with these delves into folk, and they just often came off as flat in the flow of the disc. i think it's partly because the vocal content that he tended to attach to these rawer points is often kind of only relevant in the band's world. it's one thing to moan over a folk tune, it's another thing to moan irrelevantly over a folk tune. so, it's not the end of the last track that i find is a bit tedious, but the beginning of it. i think we do all get a little lost sometimes, and there's some power in the drawn down arrangement. but the eulogy to the railroad tracks, as arranged for atonal singer and ukelele, is just kind of bordering on the realms of bad taste. and, after 40 whatever minutes of brilliance, it's a cringey transition. but, i mean, the disc, as a whole, is a remarkable accomplishment. i don't really want to take much away from it. it's just those few minutes in there that necessitate it's fall from near perfection to mere excellence.
