"Between dog and wolf": your reviews!

[scobb]

Finally received the 2 record set of Between Dog and Wolf this week!

First I have to sing praises for the artwork here as I think this is the best packaging I’ve seen on an LP for a long time!  The way every song has its very own artwork on the inner sleaves and I love the bold cave painting style of the outer sleave so it’s an easy 5 stars for Joolz!

I am pleasantly surprised at how good the pressing is (very quiet) and how good this sounds compared to their other recent albums!  They have left more dynamic range in the master that allows the music to “breath” more freely giving the album more texture.

Having got “into” New Model Army around Thunder and Consolation I’ve never really warmed to the harder rock sound of the more modern albums where as this new offering seems to fall between the two styles and I think works very well!

Time will tell of course but my initial thoughts are very positive and I would recommend Between Dog and Wolf to anybody that switched off to NMA around The Love of Hopeless Causes LP or after.

All in all a great new offering by NMA

[Stoney]

Playing the album again now, second play today...... Still a grower....... The restrained style of the songs, and almost clinical production is jarringly different to any other NMA album, Echoes of the last few years certainly. RED Earth, Ocean Rising and the Navigating By The Stars album in general........ It's a weird lack of riffs that I keep coming back to.
The first time I heard Seven Times I remember thinking it was odd seing Marshall play a single chord strike while Ceri went off free form soloing like crazy........ I think previous line ups would have had a more set bass line on it, meanwhile the bass is mising totally from Stormclouds it seems in favour of second drums....... Odd way of working, it works well enough, but a true inspired bass line would've lifted the song further, not "got in the way" to my ears..... Stuart's bass lines, or Moose's or Nelson's never detracted from Rob's and latterly Micheal's brutal pounding tribal drums as n when....
No question about the vocal performances, I think Justin's vocals are right up there with anything he's put down.
The true test, apart from live of course, will be how often we all listen to Between Dog And Wolf in 6 months......

[cthulhu]

The first time I heard Seven Times I remember thinking it was odd seing Marshall play a single chord strike while Ceri went off free form soloing like crazy........

..are you sure it's not a guitar soloing? i'm not really sure after you mentioning it, but i said to myself: nice guitar solo there...

but i also had some feelings about missing some catchy basslines on the album, but now, afetr a while, all my thoughts are gone and i just hear some damn fine good music.

[purplehaze]

totally and utterly in love with it,find it haunting and when i am out its still playing in my head,addicted to it to say the least

[Stoney]

The first time I heard Seven Times I remember thinking it was odd seing Marshall play a single chord strike while Ceri went off free form soloing like crazy........

..are you sure it's not a guitar soloing? i'm not really sure after you mentioning it, but i said to myself: nice guitar solo there...

but i also had some feelings about missing some catchy basslines on the album, but now, afetr a while, all my thoughts are gone and i just hear some damn fine good music.

Definately bass it kicks in around 1 minute 30 on the album, Marshall's style strumming the 2 chord pattern....... on this clip Ceri starts at 2minutes 10 seconds free forming away on the bass.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRZSs0iNgF8

[cthulhu]

 

never heard such nice bass-feedbacks as on the album...
gotta re-listen the album now and again

btw, it's a fuckin' good new model army album for me (now, after a little while)

[Ron B]

 I wanted to get plenty of listens before I made a review and now after 2 weeks of listening I can say that this CD is EXCELLENT .    The One thing I can say with total truth and Honesty is that No one writes Lyrics Like Justin. This man is a  Genius artist in the true sense.  Reading the Lyrics in the cd Sleeve I am amazed how he can put words to music and it is so natural and he has been doing this for a very long time. That is very rare in Todays Vapid music scene where it seems shock value and the usual sound the same acts seem to be the rule at the moment.

 Now I am just waiting for hopefully some news about an American Tour.

[Guillaume]

Listened to it for the 30th or 40th times yesterday night on my headphones...
strangely enough, i think that the albums plays very well if you play it while driving at night, or listening it at night on headphones...not so many NMA album work this way, maybe because BDAW is more moody, cinematic, "ambient" than most of others NMA albums.
A few songs i was a bit cold or indifferent like "Tomorrow came" or "Lean back and fall" have a bit grown on me, yesterday...and the highlights remain highlights: "Pull the sun", "I need more time", "March in September", "Seven times", "Did you make it safe?", "Knievel", "Between dog and wolf"...
definitively a good, very good album. 

[potterwamp]

I have listened to BDAW at least 25 times now and I have a different fav ever time I put the headphones on! Let me recommend if you haven't tracked it thru a good pair of headphones you need to do so ASAP. It is fantastic listening this way. Some of the deeper lyrics are almost haunting thru the headphones. It reminds me of the Peter Gabriel album So in some respects but the tick tock tick tock in I Need More Time is very Pink Floydish maybe the Final Cut which I just happen to regard as the best Floyd Album ever! I love the new album and can't wait till they come stateside.

[Guillaume]

It reminds me of the Peter Gabriel album So

"Pull the sun" for example has some echoes of Peter Gabriel's sound, the drums, the etheral mood, the echoes on the voices, etc.
Such a great, beautiful song.

Pink Floyd...why not?...i remember a friend of mine thinking that the long, moody intro of "Green and grey" sounded like Pink Floyd.

[little owl]

Full disclosure - I've been a fan of NMA for over 25 years - and I always have a little lag time between getting a new album and loving it. This one was a little longer. I wanted to wait until I had listened to the CD a lot before I wrote a review and I am glad I did because initially I really did not like it. I kept reading reviews that said it would grow on me...so I kept listening and it did. It is on pretty constant rotation these days and I am finally excited about it on a level that is very different than the other albums before. For me, there was always an instant, almost visceral appeal to Justin's lyrics and the music mostly came later.  I think the problem I had with this one was that I didn't connect emotionally to the lyrics and since that had always been the case before, I wasn't sure where to put it.
As I kept listening to it though, I realized that I was falling in love with the music - and that the emotional connection I was looking for with this album was not lyrical and that's OK. (There's a first time for everything) It's in the lushness of the sound and the rhythm of the drums - which are FINALLY showcased amazingly well. The music makes me incredibly happy - and now that I finally realized that, I can't seem to turn it off. I'm a big fan of spooky, moody, driving music - and this album appeals to me on that level.  So now I can join the voices saying that it will grow on you with absolute honesty. It will grow on you...particularly if you listen to it with headphones, 1000 times, at a very loud volume 

I cannot wait to hop the puddle and see it live. I'm going on my first vacation in a thousand years and it will be so amazing to see NMA in Ireland, especially with the new found love of Between Dog and Wolf. Cheers boys - looking forward to seeing you!