✮ 1990s. ✮
+1990. +1991. +1992. +1993. +1994. +1995. +1996. +1997. +1998. +1999.
✮ 2000s. ✮
+2000. +2001. +2002. +2003. +2004. +2005. +2006. +2007. +2008. +2009.
✮ 2010s. ✮
+2010. +2011. +2012. +2013. +2014. +2015. +2016. +2017. +2018. +2019.
✮ genres. ✮
+emo +nu-metal +pop-punk +post-grunge
✮ bands. ✮
+32 Leaves +Motion City Soundtrack +We Are Scientists
✮ Album Diary #003 ✮ 32 Leaves - Panoramic {2007} ✮
Dear Diary,
A follow-up that outshines the original? Uncommon occurrence but 32 Leaves have brought it about. I'm in pain about how good Panoramic is. There's basically no bad songs. Scratch that, no bad songs at all. In pain because there was no more albums beyond it. There is the new and promising What We've Lost but it's no guarantee that we'll be getting any more true 32 Leaves masterpieces. One can hope.
The melodies, the lyrics, the angst is amped up. There is a still the nu-metal ethereal theme that was perfectly at home in Welcome To The Fall. I don't have complaints and it's hard to explain how much I love this album because I'm not smart enough to put it into comprehensible language. Just, flawless.
The Mixtape
13. Intro
{Note} Feels wrong to rank anything last place but Intro is a better instrumental than Welcome To The Fall's Interlude. It's a great opening to the heaviness of Protocol but that's just about all.
12. Slave
I will never be your slave
I can pull the trigger too
11. Human
So put your blame on me, I'm so ashamed
So what, you say it's done
You pretend it's so painless
10. Way Beyond
You taught me to hate above everything
Then you sold me lies (You’re not what you seem)
I’m trying to erase what you’ve done to me
{Note} This was actually my most-played 32 Leaves song for awhile. Always on repeat.
9. No Meaning
The pain in me only shows
I wasn't made to die alone
But you're not right here
It's a bitter taste that I have
Erase all memory, start me all over again
My fate has brought me only pain, start me all over again
{Note} I think this song is an interesting contrast to Seal My Fate. Seal My Fate laments to not wash away the evidence of one's existence while Erase All Memory begs to be destroyed and allowed to start over.
7. Seal My Fate
Yeah I've climbed the cradle you've stole
My conscience compels me to say in vain
Take a moment just to breathe, then collect me
{Note} The last song on the album, it's melancholy and hopeful.
5. Safe Haven
Some die awaiting, I'm not your oversight
Soon you'll awaken to find I vanished in the night
{Note} I can't put it into words but the chorus of this song is so nostalgic. Like it's in a cut-scene of a video game, or a scene in a movie... for some reason I'm seeing a black sky and an endless tundra.
4. Protocol
What she still sees in color
I'm surrounding in black and white
{Note} A second-part of the the two-piece opener, the roughness and strength of Protocol right after the Intro is jolting. It's the first song I heard from Panoramic.
Fuck what you'd say, I'd say your talk is cheap
{Note} The best closing to any 32 Leaves song.
2. Disarray
Anticipating this
Lie and say I'm alive
Slow move or close my fist
Thoughts of the killing kind
{Note} This song's pace is insane. It's hard as hell, fast, and amazing. The emphasis of 'killing kind' gives me shivers every time. It has also the craziest and most aggressive guitars that on the album, in my usually uninformed opinion.
1. Sideways
Go on twist me
Sideways enough to sever
Some day I won't feel this way
{Note} The line 'some day I won't feel this way' is beautiful but also extremely vital to me. I used to live by the philosophy (maybe still do) that whatever depression or anxiety I'm having will come to pass. Whatever ache deepens will one day stop. It's why I also love Nada Surf's Believe Your Mine off their 2016 album You Know Who You Are. In that song Matthew Caws says 'One day, I'll love somebody else'. This intangible approach is what keeps me going.
Labels: 2000s, 2007, 32 Leaves, emo, nu-metal, Panoramic, post-grunge
✮ Album Diary #002 ✮ Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life {2010} ✮
Dear Diary,
I first discovered Motion City Soundtrack just before university. It was a pretty turbulent time, I hadn't ever really been to Europe and here I was going all the way over there for the next three years, leaving the comforts of Asia behind. This was also when I started to expand my taste in music and come across some discoveries that I still cherish now. Nada Surf. Magnolia Electric Co. And Motion City Soundtrack.
Though this was not the band's first album I went through, for some reason it always struck me as extra special. Maybe it was the incredibly catchy tunes, which were present on I Am The Movie and Commit This To Memory just as much, but there was some kind of undeniable draw to My Dinosaur Life that I couldn't put into words.
The Mixtape
14. So Long Farewell [Bonus Track!]
I wonder why she's so fragile
And I wonder why she never smiles
She's the saddest music in the world tonight
13. History Lesson
What’re you asking me for it’s not my goddamn history
What do you hope to find here there’s nothing left as you can see
12. Worker Bee
{Note} This isn't exactly a bad song, the album is a ten-ten. But if I had to pick the loser... sorry, little worker bee, but it's gotta be you. It's kind of weird because this song is probably the more experimental of the album, it's still catchy, and is probably the opener for a reason. But I just don't like it as much as the others.It went from no good to fucked up and over.
A total distortion of lifelong disorders
11. Sunny Day [Bonus Track!]
Not that I am special, not that you're some work of art
Not that we're not perfect for each other's fucked up hearts
10. Her Words Destroyed My Planet
I stall before I start.
I stall before I start anything at all
{Note} I get that not every song with the word 'planet' in it that refers to a girl is that one song... Another Girl Another Planet by the Only Ones. But it feels like they are all an ode to it. And something about the sadness pop rock of this MCS track really brings the essence of the original. I say original, as if MCS is actually making an ode. No, they are not. It's all my stupid association and pattern thinking again. Like when I confused Argo and Fargo, I refused to watch Fargo because I hated Ben Affleck (turns out he was in Argo). Makes sense. Anyway, enough tangents. It's apparently about a girlfriend leaving which leads to a downward spiral which leads to now. And now is pretty sweet, so I guess, it's cool that you broke up with me, okay?
9. Hysteria
A total calamity, the choices I have made
8. The Weakends
I've tried to figure out
How many lives I've wasted waiting for the perfect time to start.
7. A Life Less Ordinary (Need A Little Help)
I wish I was someone else
What if life is a magic trick?
Some quick slight of hand just to make us think.
{Note} Ah, a dark horse. I didn't think about this song much, this album is borderline perfect so you can become distracted. I was surprised by how much I liked this one.
5. Disappear
And I can decompose
When it suits me, I accelerate it
Wicked on all fours
I surrender to the storm
{Note} I had a weird phase in my life when I thought I could pack a bag, leave, and stop existing. I remember reading some kind of PDF handbook I came across by accident because I was listening to and obsessed with Radiohead's How To Disappear Completely. I can't remember what was driving me but the true strength of an act like that was never something I had in me. What was I even going to do? Who the fuck knows. This was about the time I also thought I could check out of a bad situation mentally until it ended. The results of being a colossal underachiever in school. Anyway, both things were pretty dumb and I'm glad I handled it, well, as much as can be handled. But this song was the soft ground I could aim for when I was going down that really steep fall.
4. Pulp Fiction
It's like a bad dream
Something from the back of a magazine
Black and white and cheaply put together
{Note} This is possibly the best chorus on this album (maybe the best chorus of MCS?). The lyrical narration, the dreamy and excited guitar melody, and the airy backing vocals. It's totally perfect. The song is also not ruined by being an obvious hideout for many weeb references.
3. @!#?@!
You all need to go away, you motherfuckers
You all need to leave me and my sensitive homeboys alone
{Note} MCS are pretty nerdy, leave it or take it. I think it's cute. This song gets a high score for just how silly and good it sounds. It hits all the right notes. Also I know a lot of people think it's immature to overuse swear words, especially "fuck", in songs (and MCS sure do) but I am of a different opinion. No slurs, but all the "fucks", "bitches", and "bastards" you want, okay?
So I will understand if you don't stayThey say I'm great at first but then the magic fadesInto an awful hue of dismal views and pessimistic attitude
{Note} I think these phrases condense who I am as a person into just a few ideas. I genuinely think all my friends barely tolerate me and that I can't make new ones. It's just not realistic, what with anyone new surely destined to grow disappointed and eventually choosing to pull back. But sometimes I grow hopeful when one or two important people from my past let me know they do still wanna hear from me.
1. Delirium
I didn't know I'd get caught in the middleI touched it once and I touched it a second time'Cause I am that naiveA myriad of bright ideas
{Note} I don't know if this is my poor writing skills showing but I've always been drawn to the word 'myriad'. And 'polymer'. I can't say the point of the song is especially personal, I'm not really medicated except for the chronic migraines. I can't imagine being a in a place where you need the drugs that are always changing you. This is still my favourite song off the album. Maybe my favourite MCS track ever.
Labels: 2010, 2010s, emo, Motion City Soundtrack, My Dinosaur Life, pop-punk
✮ Album Diary #001 ✮ 32 Leaves - Welcome To The Fall {2005} ✮
Dear Diary,
It's about a year and a half that I've been in France. The amount of emo phases I've had probably totals at around 4 or 5. They come and go and never stick (until now) because eventually something like too much Panic! At The Disco or Metro Station on a mix tape pisses me off and I don't want to go back ever. All American Rejects are kind of flip-floppy for me, I can't decide if I like them or not. Same with Fall Out Boy. Others stick (Gob, Motion City Soundtrack, and so on). Anyway, another emo renaissance hits me. I can't remember how I got here. Nu-metal radio. All I know is that drifting down the rabbit hole of TRUSTcompany, Lo-Pro, and Taproot has led me to stuff I really, really like.
I love 32 Leaves. I don't think they have a bad song. Why couldn't they have stuck around longer? The recent release of What We've Lost is an excellent premonition. I mean, they seem to be back but sometimes bands just get a single track out or just one more album and then disappear again. The song has fresh elements but is also so totally classic 32 Leaves. I don't want them to evolve too much, which is like the opposite of what good music should do. But they are already borderline perfect to me. Evolution for 32 Leaves may look like a turn to the generic. A disaster. Anyway, this is all about Welcome To The Fall, the debut. I confess now that Panoramic is my preferred album but that does nearly nothing to devalue Welcome To The Fall which is masterful.
The Mixtape
{Note} Interlude to Addiction sounds metal as hell but it's a short ditty.
11. Deep Breath
You know you're always on my mind
They wouldn't understand, but
That was half the plan
{Note} We have Deftones at home.
10. Overflow
Step by step descent from where I am would seem a better plan than falling in
9. Wide Awake
That when inebriant you're ignorant and cruel
And I'm the fool standing here waiting up for you
It's odd that you would think
What's always been a game to me would suddenly change
You blame me, when you couldn't justify
Leaving me far behind
6. Waiting
I know I've been there once before
With my face down to the floor
Beggin' to feel the weight no more
Well I don't know what you want from me
I've given you everything
Even the air I breathe
{Note} The more 32
Leaves I heard, the more I needed. Even when I heard everything they made
I had to go looking for more and found Lo-Pro and more similar bands.
It became obvious, what really drew me in besides the very aggressive
instrumentals was the beautiful and haunting vocals.
4. All Is Numb
I guess my thinking too much is what's been fuckin' me up
It's my own worst enemy, but
It will never own me...
Who am I kidding anyway?
3. Makeshift
{Note} Something about the effects on the vocals give me At The Drive-In's Enfilade (my beloved). This was actually in 8th place before, but I soon became obsessed with this song.Trust me to feed you lies like you want me to
Trust me to close my eyes and pretend you never looked at me straight
2. Your Lies
Your lies need to stop
I keep running out of reasons to comfort and shelter you
{Note} This line follows me through my dreams.
But I hold on still to the hope you will
Be gone when I awake from dreaming
{Note} This is the first 32 Leaves song I ever heard and I was hypnotized.
Labels: 2000s, 2005, 32 Leaves, emo, nu-metal, post-grunge, Welcome To The Fall
