Anyone else not convinced with BDAW ? OK just me then...

[szmurf]

I had a similar experience as some listeners with the drums feeling like a bit much.  They just seemed to over ride everything else and beat on my head and chest.  I've given it a number of listens at a lower volume and it just seems to come together for me that way.

Those that have issues with the percussion, might want to give it a try.  It's not like you can simply dismiss an entire NMA album; sometimes you just need to change the parameters of the listening experience.

[Bunny]

Hello Simon, definitely an album that needs time. Some here first said they didn't like it, but then they started to get it. Myself, I have changed my mind several times of which songs I think are the best. Its not an album that hits you straight away, but that is often a good sign, and album you will come to enjoy for many years.

Ive found that with several songs off various albums. I couldnt listen to Dawn from High for years but its stuck in my head now. Maybe sometimes you have to give songs time and musical tastes change.

[Simon73]

I had a similar experience as some listeners with the drums feeling like a bit much.  They just seemed to over ride everything else and beat on my head and chest.  I've given it a number of listens at a lower volume and it just seems to come together for me that way.

Those that have issues with the percussion, might want to give it a try.  It's not like you can simply dismiss an entire NMA album; sometimes you just need to change the parameters of the listening experience.

hi from my side no issues at all with percussions or anything else. just trying to underline for me the main differences or specificities I hear in this album. Go to hear another 2 songs now and I join baby Maya sleeping............night to all.

[JohnH]

I'm listening to it right now on headphones & I have to say I love it. Yes it's different to the previous albums. yes it's tribal. yes it's atmospheric. yes it's not a "rock band in a room".

All of these things are what make it what it is. 

as a drummer I wondered how aluminium toms would sound. In a studio album they sound amazing, can't wait to hear them live

[Simon73]

After careful listening I just can say that the album is growing time after time as all the others. I mean I bought my first NMA album when I was 18, I picked it up by chance in a vynil store in Innsbruck. I was there for a period of time. Theoretically to try to learn some German (never really happened). And since then, it is like that. Albums that left me not totally convinced then became classics like all the others. This one guys it is just amazing. I would say more “deep” than the others. Less choruses to sing all together during gigs (unfortunately I could not attend s single gif since the beginning of the tour. I was away for work, family problems (“family life”) and now I am alone with the amazing baby Maya), but incredible songs  as far as music and lyrics. As I underlined in another post the use of drums is very different. Much more tribal and much more present sometimes one can only mainly hear the drums……in the beginning of many songs, in the middle…….And  after so many years this band is the only one  which can make me shiver (no rhetoric but it is very much true just a physical thing), as it happened a few minutes ago listening to March in September and Did you Make it Safe.
Thank you guys for this amazing piece of work and I hope >I can manage to hit the road before the end of the tour.
Love to all.
Simon

[Simon73]

THE WHOLE ALBUM IS ******* AMAZING........................................................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lostincanada]

From the album sampler and the videos on youtube, I honestly wasn't expecting to like this album a whole lot.  Lyrically, it sounded weak and musically limited.  However, I just downloaded it from the shop, and am listening to it at work, first time, and well, it's pretty good!   

It's much more of a piece with eight/carnival/high, in that it has a very ethereal feel to it, with perhaps just a bit more sinister around the edges.  I think from Carnival onward especially, Justin's songwriting has shown - not surprisingly - a greater awareness and acceptance of mortality.  Beyond these carnival lights, there is nothing at all, indeed.  I may be in a minority, but I love Carnival)

None of us are getting any younger, and some of us, sadly, aren't getting any older, and the later NMA albums are full of songs tinged with reflection and maybe some regret.  Maybe the more expansive, tribal format fits that mood better than the old rock band in a room trope. 

Right.  Back on with it.  Grateful and relieved!

[Guillaume]

I think from Carnival onward especially, Justin's songwriting has shown - not surprisingly - a greater awareness and acceptance of mortality.  Beyond these carnival lights, there is nothing at all, indeed.  I may be in a minority, but I love Carnival)

None of us are getting any younger, and some of us, sadly, aren't getting any older, and the later NMA albums are full of songs tinged with reflection and maybe some regret.

Very very true.
Don't you think that with each passing new NMA's albums, their music is more and more melancholy??
Songs like "I need more time", "Did you make it safe", "Pull the sun" on the new album are clues of this side of the band, also i think of the JS's solo album and late songs like "High", "Dawn", "Rivers", etc.

[jackroadkill]

I've tried BDAW again after a few weeks abstinence, the plan being to see if a fresh approach would somehow lead me to like it more.  I'm tearing my hair out trying to like it and it's just not happening.  I've always gone by the maxim that a good song can be stripped down to just an acoustic guitar and vocal and still stand up and have as much appeal - I can't see this being the case with many of the BDAW tracks.

[MerseyExile]

It could be you and me against the world Jack. I would love to love it and decided to give it a few weeks. But no BDAW is still very weak. I have played it to family and friends who are not obsessed followers of NMA but like the music. Not one single good comment. MOR, mid atlantic crap etc. Someone thought it was a bad Justin solo effort and he should get back with the band asap. I know the "totally obsessed" family here think BDAW is "******* brilliant" and NMA can do no wrong. NO. The emperor's new clothes methinks.

[Barty]

This is someone's piece of work....if you don't like it, fine but let's not descend into slagging it off. I wanted to love it and do love it - having played it zillions of times on my iPod...not out of a sense of duty to NMA but because I love it. I don't imagine any of us pretend to like it just to be polite or in fear of offending the band.

[Shush]

Think its a bit harsh using the JS solo album as a yardstick of badness. Many people think the solo album is superb. I think there are comparisons with the solo album and the new NMA album, and rather, the new album is as GOOD as the solo album.

Certainly the sound of the new album is not going to please NMA fans who are more comfortable with the older NMA sound, but those days are now gone. It is not as if this album is holding back an alternative sound. This is what NMA now sound like on record.

Will the next album be similar, who can say. I doubt even JS knows himself what kind of sound he will feel like making next. If you don"t like this one, don"t worry about it. Listen to some older ones.

The sound of NMA has evolved, and will no doubt continue to do so. Some of us will like all the variety the band has given and some will get left behind. I have said before, we all grow older and tastes change. I would not have liked the new album when I was in my late teens, but now in my 40s I can enjoy this kind of sound. I believe my taste in music has changed in line with the changes of my favourate band. If this to some people may sound like I am fooling myself, then so what, I am one of the lucky ones who likes all of the albums.

Barty, read your P/Ms mi duck 

[Master Ray]

It could be you and me against the world Jack. I would love to love it and decided to give it a few weeks. But no BDAW is still very weak. I have played it to family and friends who are not obsessed followers of NMA but like the music. Not one single good comment. MOR, mid atlantic crap etc. Someone thought it was a bad Justin solo effort and he should get back with the band asap. I know the "totally obsessed" family here think BDAW is "******* brilliant" and NMA can do no wrong. NO. The emperor's new clothes methinks.

Respect your opinion, mate, but I'd love to hear a justification for THAT comment...

Again, no offence, but I can't get my head around it...

[Greboicus]

It could be you and me against the world Jack. I would love to love it and decided to give it a few weeks. But no BDAW is still very weak. I have played it to family and friends who are not obsessed followers of NMA but like the music. Not one single good comment. MOR, mid atlantic crap etc. Someone thought it was a bad Justin solo effort and he should get back with the band asap. I know the "totally obsessed" family here think BDAW is "******* brilliant" and NMA can do no wrong. NO. The emperor's new clothes methinks.

Sorry but balls to respect, I have been following this thread with interest and I did have respect for your opinion, now I don't. I am quite happy to accept that you don't like it but suddenly with using phrases like "obsessed" you are basically saying that if we do like it it is because we have no taste and are somehow blinkered. I like it because I like it having listened to it intently and  I also loved "Navigating by the Stars" so someone coming and telling me I am essentially "obsessed" can just do one.

Amazingly enough having waved my teenage years goodbye decades ago I feel that I may actually be totally aware of what I like and what I don't and maybe just maybe I might be entitled to my opinion because sure as hell you are entitled to yours and don't we all know it!

[Alicat]

Shush said:

The sound of NMA has evolved, and will no doubt continue to do so. Some of us will like all the variety the band has given and some will get left behind. I have said before, we all grow older and tastes change

I couldn't agree more. I'm in my mid forties now and having been a fan for about 20 years I know that some of my tastes have changed even as the band's music has changed- I loved Strange Brotherhood and Eight at the time  but they're not amongst my favourite of the NMA albums now, and I probably wouldn't have liked the more recent albums when I was much younger either!

Don't get that "MOR, mid atlantic crap etc" comment at all either .