Evil Urges: Your Thoughts 1 Year Later...

[Jellyfish]

You have to be an adult to be on this forum? There goes half of us...
I was only joking Jelly...and just to let you know...I found your opinion insulting.

I don't care. :P

[Bigsky]

You have to be an adult to be on this forum? There goes half of us...
I was only joking Jelly...and just to let you know...I found your opinion insulting.

I don't care. :P

I don't care that you don't care, but I do care that I don't care that you don't care :P

[AMightyCaporal]

You have to be an adult to be on this forum? There goes half of us...
I was only joking Jelly...and just to let you know...I found your opinion insulting.

I don't care. :P

I don't care that you don't care, but I do care that I don't care that you don't care :P

my head has exploded

[mymorningwood]

EU is my least fav mmj album by far.  still my fav band along w/ tool tho. thats my asshole opinion.

[PapaJoeBear]

Definately my least favorite album. I have a feeling I will never get into new MMJ albums, which is ashame, as the 1st 3 albums, and the earlier EPs mean sooooo much to me. I still listen to them all the time.  I didnt like Z at all at first, but a few songs really took to me eventually, particular the final 3 song run. It just seems that Jim has really distanced himself from the "southern" sound. (I never thought that term quite fit; there is something so unique about those first 3 albums).  I know, I've heard everyone say to repsonses like this that a band has to grow, they shouldnt stay the same... I agree. Let them grow! I just dont have to like what they have grown into.  I know this opinion wont be popular, but I think Fleet Foxes have picked up the 'torch'. They are making music that I actually had imagined MMJ moving into after ISM.  But whatev, Jim and the boys still are mighty fine boys in my book. They've made songs that are part of the soundtrack of my life.  They dominate my mixes I make, and when I play guitar I am always finding my way into Death is the Easy Way or Hopefully, or even Come Closer (*swoon*).
I hope I am proven wrong though! I really want to love a new MMJ album again.  As long as they keep putting albums out, I'll be there on release day. THey've definately earned that with me.

THats my 2 cents/

[Kenny76]

I still listen to it from time to time and reading this thread inspired me to put it on right now.   I never skip any tracks.   What stands out to me the most right now (now that I'm extremely familiar with the songs) is the production.  It's got a lot of warm booming tones, and the guitars sound very crisp.  It's on VERY loud right now and sounds fantastic.  There's more reverb than I remembered.   These are all great songs.   It Still Moves is still my favorite album by them, but it's one of my favorites by anyone, so it'd be hard to beat.  If the rest of their albums are half as good as ISM, I'll continue to buy them and play them loud when I need to drift away.   OK... maybe not half, maybe 65%.

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

1 year later it is still MMJ's worst album, BUT has some of MMJ's best songs.  

[Brother Beck]

My thoughts on Evil Urges one year later are that I absolutely love the first few songs and the last few songs on the CD, but I don't really care for the ones in the middle.  When I put it on, which I do quite often, I listen up through track 5 and then skip to track 11 and finish the CD.  With the exception of Two Halves, a song that I actually dislike a great deal, I don't dislike the songs that I usually skip over and I think they are all pretty good songs.  I just don't love them the way I do other songs by MMJ, and that's what I'm looking for when I put them on.

On kind of a side note, I seemed to be in the minority when it came to Evil Urges a lot of the time because I loved Highly Suspicious right off the bat, which I know some people out there did too, but even moreso because I loved Remnants so much and that is a song that nobody else seems to like that much, not even the band.

The thing that I find interesting - and I know this has been pointed out before but it really rings true for me – is how much I really connect with other music that has since come out in various ways that I believe comes from those sessions.  I love both Dear Wife and El Caporal and I think Devil's Peanut Butter is up there with some of MMJ's best work.

[Shepardspy]

For an album that encapsulates their whole career up to last year it's being rated pretty low by you folk.  

[AMightyCaporal]

For an album that encapsulates their whole career up to last year it's being rated pretty low by you folk.  

:( werd

I think they are just comparing it to the older stuff- which is totally different.  I can understand being a long time fan and comparing their stuff. Where as I came in late to the game- a few months before EU, I only had Z and a few songs from older albums under my belt.  EU was the second full CD I heard front to back-

[capt. scotty]

For an album that encapsulates their whole career up to last year it's being rated pretty low by you folk.  

...and this is true how, exactly?  :-?

[Brother Beck]

For me the album doesn't seem to encapsulate their whole career up to that point so much as it shows them breaking away from the sound they had previously made to try out new things artistically and creatively.  I commend them for doing so and respect them greatly even while admitting that many of the songs on Evil Urges just don't really do it for me as much as some of their other work.  Like I said before, they did make songs at that time that I feel do encapsulate their old sound while building on it in new and interesting ways more than some of the songs that did make it onto the album do but chose to leave them off the album for one reason or another.  (I'm not positive, but wasn't this only their second record with this current lineup, and the first that this current lineup all went into recording as a group...?)  

Just as a reference point, I still put every song on Evil Urges above 99% of the music out there today and MMJ is definitely still my favorite band.  These guys are amazing and I hope to hear more from them together soon.  I was just conveying my honest thoughts on it a year later.

[Shepardspy]

For an album that encapsulates their whole career up to last year it's being rated pretty low by you folk.  

...and this is true how, exactly?  :-?

Like Brother Beck said the album draws from influences throughout their career and then puts a modern MMJ twist on them.  Not only musically, but conceptually I feel that EU strives to make a connection with the listener while exposing them to new ideas and sounds.  This is something MMJ has done their whole career, but on an album by album basis.  EU was jarring to people because every song was so different.

If you think EU didn't succeed in connecting it doesn't matter because they had good intentions.  I'd scream too if I had to go through what they did to reach this point.  

After seeing this band on NYE there is no doubt in my mind that they are rock n' roll gods and they will make peoples head's explode on the next record!    

[AMightyCaporal]

For an album that encapsulates their whole career up to last year it's being rated pretty low by you folk.  

...and this is true how, exactly?  :-?

If you think EU didn't succeed in connecting it doesn't matter because they had good intentions.  I'd scream too if I had to go through what they did to reach this point.  
   

everyone should be aware that you are talking about both the bands actual good intentions and the last track on the album called good intentions- you know- the one where they scream and say "okay cool"

well written Shep- I knew I was right to step back and wait for you to field it- I wouldnt have been able to explain it quiet as well.

I totally agree about them being rock n roll gods.  There has yet to be a show I saw of them that I didn't think- How could so many not realize?

[capt. scotty]

For an album that encapsulates their whole career up to last year it's being rated pretty low by you folk.  

...and this is true how, exactly?  :-?

Like Brother Beck said the album draws from influences throughout their career and then puts a modern MMJ twist on them.  Not only musically, but conceptually I feel that EU strives to make a connection with the listener while exposing them to new ideas and sounds.  This is something MMJ has done their whole career, but on an album by album basis.  EU was jarring to people because every song was so different.
 

I dont feel that way, which I guess is why I didnt understand what you were saying. To me, the sounds and especially lyrical themes of nearly all the songs on EU are very different than anything in their discog. I think Z fits perfectly with what youre saying though.

[sweatboard]

I think Evil Urges is just a bit overwhelming for many fans The first three songs get you thinking they did Z part3 then they slow it down, show you some amazing songs, mellow it out, rock the shit out, and then bring it on home.  It's so much to digest and it's not all on the same page.  I think song writing wise it's a progression but it's definitely scatterbrained when it comes to the flow of the songs.  It reminds me a bit of a cross between Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief, in the context of Radiohead(I think I bring up Radiohead because they are one of the only other bands to come out with back, to back, to back, to back, to back albums with such amazing results) It's part building off of Z and it's part spilling ideas and songs without the context of being pinned down to a particular style, but at the same time they're begging for the listener to meld the songs together.  I listen to EU and I'm thinking i.e.  "When God Gave Us Mirrors, He Had No Idea" ok if Jim had just scribbled down this line it would have already qualified as an awesome record.  We ARE SO SPOILED!!  I mean "Look for eyes that hypnotize and sparkle" come on!!!!  It's the closest they have come to a concept record and it has me dreaming of the next Tommy, or The Wall.  EU is the Shiz, I'll be listening to it for a long time to come, it speaks........... Just listen.      

[sweatboard]

I think this is my favorite lyric of the entire record

we believe in your power. to lead without fear.
not above, in some tower. but here-
right down here- ...with us. in this world.


SO AWESOME!!!!

oh yeah and.....


then i saw a new "heaven" - formed in the bleeding light of dusk-
all souls, all faiths, always- we were one.
there i saw a new "heaven" - formed in the bleeding light of dusk-
all souls, all faiths- always- we are one.

2cents

[weeniebeenie]

EU is the Shiz, I'll be listening to it for a long time to come, it speaks........... Just listen.

Exactly.

[Ruckus]

I think Evil Urges is just a bit overwhelming for many fans ...... Just listen.      

::) ::) ::)

Yup, it's too much album for me.

[sweatboard]

well, I just think it's a lot to digest.  Mabey it turns some people off because there is such a wide variety of songs, thats all.  :-*