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General Category => New Model Army => Topic started by: Guillaume on September 01, 2019, 07:36:13 PM
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In July when i listened for the first time to 'Never arriving" and "End of days" the first songs released of the new album i thought:
"It's...ok...not great NMA but still quite good, effective."
Now, one month later i must say that "End of days" is still a solid quite thrilling song but "Never arriving"... has really grown on me,
i find it quite hypnotic in its pace and the way Justin speaks -and not really sings- brillantly on this song...and that beautiful instrumental, moody break/bridge near the end, wow!
"Conversation"!
This one is so "simple" yet touching and beautiful, it moves me in the way Justin sings and the clear guitar sounds..lovely...and it also brings memories of Justin's haunting poetic sensitive masterpiece "Navigating by the stars", like for others songs on "From here".
The last song that made a quite big impression on me at least on first listen was the closing title track...again i found it quite hypnotic in its relentless rythm/pace and the haunting way Justin speaks...i felt a sadness in this song, almost desperate feel but i must say i didn't really "work" on the lyrics and their meanings, for the moment...i just wanted to "feel" the music and the delivering of the words, before translating and understanding the lyrics of this new album.
So "Never arriving" "Conversation" and "From here" are my trio of winners, for now!
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OK, I was going to start a thread about this same subject, but you beat me to it!
In fact, I'll go one further... I love making lists and after about thirty listens to FH I think I'm ready to make a big list of the tracks on this great album, best to worst (not that there is an actual 'worst', I am fond of every track on this album) but you know what I mean...
1 - The Weather
2 - Never Arriving
3 - Where I Am
4 - Great Disguise
5 - End Of Days
6 - Conversation
7 - Setting Sun
8 - Watch And Learn
9 - Passing Through
10 - From Here
11 - Maps
12 - Hard Way
Anyone else wanna follow?
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Only song that i think is slightly grating is 'Where i am"...with the happy chorus, i had almost images of the song over the opening credits of some teenage tv series from the 90's! :D
Others...:
I'm mixed about "Passing through" because it is too long (the drums part at the end..) but i quite like the song's first half.
"End of days" is solid.
I'm not completely "sold" on "The weather" for the moment.
"Great disguise" is enjoyable nothing more nothing less.
"Hard way" and "Maps" are intriguing.
"Watch and learn" is big "fun" but its chorus (not the lyrics) sounds a bit silly to my ears, a bit like for "Where i am".
"Setting sun" is pretty and sonically it sounds like "Ghost train"!
I like it more than "Winter" but maybe less than "High" or "Between dog and wolf"...in all cases:
a good album! 8)
In fact, I'll go one further... I love making lists and after about thirty listens to FH Anyone else wanna follow?
Only 4/5 listens of the whole album for now so it's too early for me to have a "Best to worst" list!
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1. Conversation
2. Where I am
3. Watch and Learn
4. Never arriving
5. End of Days
6. Setting Sun
7. Maps
8. Great Disguise
9. The Weather
10. Passing Through
11. From Here
12 Hard Way
Top three are interchangeable. Love them
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1 Where I am- classic commercial folk rock in a good way
2 Watch and learn- brutal motorheadesque heavy rock
3 Never arriving- That middle 8 after the breakdown! Killer.....
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It keeps changing but at the moment my top 3 are:
The Weather
Conversation
From Here
Passing Through, Setting Sun, Hard Way Maps are also great. I got to like the end of Passing Through. Just found it a bit weird the first few listens.
Watch and Learn is the only one that still doesn't work for me but I'm slowly warming to it. I can see why people like it but the chorus just doesn't do it for me. It's a little too Burn the Castle like which I still struggle with. But hey, 11 out of 12 is pretty damn good I reckon.
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1 From Here
2 Never Arriving
3Great Disguise
4 End of Days
5 Where I am
6Watch and Learn
7 The Weather
8 Setting Sun.
Still struggling with the last 4 songs :-[
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I have only listened to the first half of the album and thus far the best song is clearly:
"Never Arriving"
- has a big thick bass tone
- classic anthemic chorus
- great vocal delivery from Justin ("always looking for trouble...it's easy to find when you're looking for trouble)
I can easily see this song becoming a classic New Model Army song from their canon
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Current favorites in no particular order:
Never Arriving
Watch and Learn
The Weather
End of Days
Maps
From Here
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1. Conversation
2. Where I am
3. Watch and Learn
4. Never arriving
5. End of Days
6. Setting Sun
7. Maps
8. Great Disguise
9. The Weather
10. Passing Through
11. From Here
12 Hard Way
Top three are interchangeable. Love them
Well within a day, the title track has gone up my listing to number 5 :(
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This one i really just love to play from beginning to end, from a to b. Passing Through is such a great starter.
Some don't like it that much but for me it leads directly to Never Arriving, from Passing Through to Never Arriving...the journey begins....
I had to think about how i would have perceived the album without already knowing two great songs on it. It would have been
Passing Through - growing slowly, surprising ending directly into - Never Arriving - just wow, love it, powerful beautiful - The Weather - rocking, cool, great - End of Days- mindblowing, touching, energy, screaming and forgiving -...
So the first 4 songs would have left me astonished how damn good this is and from there it wouldn't have stopped. With the two songs already familiar i kind of was a bit in a hurry to get through them to hear sonething new.
Songs i go to directly to hear them:
conversations
from here
setting sun
Live will be another new experience...
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This one i really just love to play from beginning to end, from a to b
that, there - i'm finally, now, feeling it as a collection of, well, moments in time - but all of them near-to-the-other. - personally-speaking, right....?
...and, all that blather behind us...right now, this second..."Never Arriving". anger, and despair, and the confusions of time, and fog and...ah, f&ck....
you know
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"From here" for me. I absolutely love it. Great lyrics, drum work blending with the keyboard, great. For me the best song of the 00's.
Second place, not easy to call, all of the others with maybe "Never arriving", "The weather", "End of days", "Conversation" nosing forward to second place.
Best album since Impurity IMO.
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"From here" for me. I absolutely love it. Great lyrics, drum work blending with the keyboard, great. For me the best song of the 00's.
The bass and drums rythms are quite impressive, between tension and release, and the way Justin speaks more than sings (like for "Never arriving") is haunting..."Repeat after me: i am the master of nothing..." it's quite a powerful ending to the album!
My favourite are still "Conversation", so delicate, touching..."Never arriving" very catchy anthem and "From here".
I like the build of "Setting sun", like a fast "Ghost train"lullaby breaking powerfully half the way, then going back to its pace, and "Maps" is slowly growing on me.
There are maybe 3/4 more minor, generic tracks on the album, but still kudos to Mr Sullivan to deliver a fine album like this at the age of 63! 8)
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Re Never Arriving... any Tea Party fans out there? The opening guitar sounds awfully familiar (I’m certainly not suggesting it was borrowed, just an observation)
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I have now listened to the first seven songs on the album....the seventh song...
"Where I Am"
Wow, a top New Model Army song. That acoustic guitar with an electric tone (I love it when acoustic guitars sound electric, not folky); fantastic background vocals that kick in late in the song; top lyrics throughout; the song is brief and to the point, makes me want to hear it again as soon as it finishes; the band coming in and dropping out throughout the song is dynamic.......a very, very good song.
I'm going to get my acoustic guitar and figure out the chords to this tune and play it myself. Heck, I might even change a chord or two and make it even better. But as for now it's a really great song even without me.
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Favourite for me at the moment is Maps. Totally epic sounding track !
I love the description of the sea creatures on the maps - the kind that appeared on old nautical maps - thrashing their tails with rolling eyes :)
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Favourite for me at the moment is Maps. Totally epic sounding track !
I love the description of the sea creatures on the maps - the kind that appeared on old nautical maps - thrashing their tails with rolling eyes :)
Yes, I love that bit too. The whole song is strangely hypnotic.
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Passing Through is such a great starter.
Some don't like it that much but for me it leads directly to Never Arriving, from Passing Through to Never Arriving...the journey begins....
I had to think about how i would have perceived the album without already knowing two great songs on it. It would have been
Passing Through - growing slowly, surprising ending directly into - Never Arriving - just wow, love it, powerful beautiful - The Weather - rocking, cool, great - End of Days- mindblowing, touching, energy, screaming and forgiving -...
So the first 4 songs would have left me astonished how damn good this is and from there it wouldn't have stopped. With the two songs already familiar i kind of was a bit in a hurry to get through them to hear sonething new.
Songs i go to directly to hear them:
conversations
from here
setting sun
Live will be another new experience...
Favourite for me at the moment is Maps. Totally epic sounding track !
It's a fine track, indeed.
Now five months later i can say that "Passing through" has really grown on me, powerful opening (even if its "peplum" ending is sligthly overlong) "Maps", also "the weather" and even "Where i am"...at first i didn't like the chorus of "where i am" but now i like that song. I would say that my favorite song of the album is still "Conversation", then "Never arriving". I think that "Watch and learn" is rather effective but its style doesn't really fit with the rest of the album, in my opinion.
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From here... live just sealed my love for it for good - this song is such a powerful experience. Passing through... Setting sun...
So hard to put the songs in order, but the album does it so well so I'll just go with it, From here crowning the experience :)
What I truly love about New Model Army is that every time they release a new album, your body and brain just absorbs it as part of your system, like you've always known these songs and they've always been an essential part of you. Just like that. So familiar. Gotta love it.
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Up for this thread, before the release of the 15th album!!
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I absolutely loved "Never Arriving" and "The Weather" the first time I heard them in September 2019 - I think they are some of the very best NMA songs to date. To be honest, I kind of struggled with the rest of the songs on the album, and to a degree I still do. Of course they all grew on me over time, but I normally skip "Conversation" just like I tend to skip "La Push". But it's not 'Your least favorite' thread, so I will go with "The Weather" - it moves me so much that it makes my eyes watery and I often lie and say that something got in my eye :)
Not my second favorite, but I have a soft spot for "Hard Way", although I don't think the drums and the bass line work particularly well together here. It sort of feels like it was meant to be a different song altogether but compromises were made. Still like it though.