Unbroken, your views

[pjevac]

I'm going through the second roll, before I haven't heard any new songs that haven't been officialy released. I think this album is fabulous, I love the sound, the feel, the songs, gotta get through the lyrics to get them all, but in general i really think this is a great album!

[orlando]

I just had a listen to the album while working, so I haven't really been able to fully immerse into it and appreciate the songs. Sacrilegious, I know. However I really love the energy and feeling of the album already now.

[Bever]

Listened to it 5 times or so. Apart from the two singles, I'm not feeling it yet...

[lupus225]

Listened to it about 5 times now, I think it's a solid album and MUCH better than From Here, imho 

[Shush]

On my first listen right now. All seems to be good quality. With NMA albums I have always found the you haven't heard it till you've listen to it 10 times.

[huwcamden]

You just gotta wait...NMA albums do not reveal themselves in full untill sometimes months or years later....this band isn't Green day or the Ramones..on first listening though for all it's worth I'd say there is a core of very decent songs here..."Language".."coming or going".."I did nothing wrong" will be in setlists in 10 years time (if they are still going!)...the production is immense as well...back to the Morrow days of Bass prominence...not sure about the digital delay on " legend" though..all abit fussy and jarring with the vocals..and why isn't "if I am still me" fully acoustic?...this is a standout track and sounds so much better when done solo like on the german radio version...that's just me though today...in a month i'll prob see it differently.

[Guillaume]

Regarding the last albums I really liked BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF, BETWEEN WINE AND BLOOD and FROM HERE. I found WINTER a little uneven (but there is the great song "Born feral" at least!). I just listened to UNBROKEN for the first time this morning. I agree that it sounds different from the previous albums which is a good thing in a way but I'm not sure I like this raw sound, it's too early of course to have a firm opinion on the production/sound and the songs, but my favorite track is I think "First summer after" the most immediately catchy and classic solid NMA song. "Cold wind" is pretty good too. Then the interesting songs, to dig into with new listenings: "Language", "I did nothing wrong", "If i am still me", "Legend", ""Idumea". There are some nice/ok tracks here but are there necessarily obvious "standouts" or GREAT immediate NMA songs?..

[lupus225]

@Guillaume:
For me, the time of immediate standout tracks is long gone, to be honest. FH was a disappointment and my hopes weren't too high for Unbroken either. I'm glad I was wrong as has pretty good songs on it, not great yet (5th spin so far) but it's definitely growing on me 

[Henning]

Yeah, all good points round here. I'm struggling a bit with this release as well. Being an Army-fan for over 30 years now, I'm not easy to please, I guess. I really like the production, the fat drums and the overdriven, snarling bass, the gritty guitars. It's something new, definitely. You can tell they really put a lot of effort into this release. But somehow this underlying romatic feel that NMA has always had for me is not there most of the time. First Summer After is certainly the track that has most of the feel that I was hoping for. Then there's perhaps Language and Cold Wind. It's good though to see some of you having the same problems to get hooked on this one as well. It's not only me then.

On the other side there's loads of people that absolutely find this a smashing album. We all definitely liike different aspects of the band which is totally ok. I know Justin tries to go new paths with every album and he absolutely dislikes doing the "obvious" things. Should I love them less for it now? Of course not! :-)

[REC29]

Yay me! I managed to extricate my Unbroken CD from its sleeve-thing. And it survived so is still unbroken.

So I'm most of the way through my second "listen" (I am, at least in theory, working with it on in the background) and I have to say I'm enjoying it. It feels more immediate to me than From Here did.

Not really in a position to comment on individual tracks, but I like the sound and it seems to fit together well.

Give me a bucketload more listens and a live show or two (I'm heading up to Leeds for that gig, and to catch up with a friend that I haven't seen in almost 30 years, so I'm hoping for a great weekend) and I might have an idea about which individual songs are my faves. Or I might not.

But for now, I'm happy with it.

[Gavin D]

Feckin' crackin' album, simple as that!

[Guillaume]

@Guillaume:
For me, the time of immediate standout tracks is long gone, to be honest.

But somehow this underlying romatic feel that NMA has always had for me is not there most of the time. First Summer After is certainly the track that has most of the feel that I was hoping for. Then there's perhaps Cold Wind.

I would say that the last NMA album where I was hooked in one listen to the vast majority of the songs was HIGH.
And "Devil's bargain" and "Happy to be here" on BETWEEN WINE AND BLOOD. I really like the albums BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF and FROM HERE but they are two albums that grew on me with a few listens and not just one listen. On UNBROKEN on 4/5 listens for the moment I don't completely find the intensity and the "underlying romantic feel" that Henning talks about, is this due to the production/mixing of the album or to the songs themselves ? Musically I still really like Michael Dean's playing, Ceri Monger has presence on the album, Dean White's use of keyboard is effective and subtle (and the strings) but Justin's voice sometimes seems muffled and filtered in the mix. One thing is certain, Justin's lyrics are always very beautiful, intelligent and sensitive, and after several listens I remember at least 5 quite beautiful, pretty good songs: "First summer after", "Legend", "Cold wind", "If i am still me " and "I did no wrong." And i suspect that the album will sound good/better live. For the moment I don't rank UNBROKEN among my favorite NMA albums but it remains an interesting album which has its moments.
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[spstreeter]

Well, not sure what I can add much that hasn't already been said. Been a fan for 30+ years and I love all of their music, not a single bad album in my opinion. I am really enjoying Unbroken, the one thing I love about this band is that each album sounds familiar and different at the same time. I love the raw nature of these songs, kind of reminds me of parts of High and TIAGD, which are two of my favorite NMA albums. I have listened to it a ton since it was released and I like all of the tracks with my favorites (as of today) being Language, Cold Wind, Coming or Going and If I Am Still Me. In any case, I hope to catch them on the tour this year. I doubt they will  make it to the US so hopefully they have some UK shows in the fall/winter.

[Henning]

So, having listened to it a couple of rounds more I start to like it better. It might not reach "my-favourite-album"-status but it's growing on me. Mostly this is due to the fat and gritty, kind of hardcore-/punkrock style production which I like in general. I also focused more on the lyrics and some songs and the production decisions make much more sense to me now :-)