Ok, so i know all of you have been waiting on the edge of your seat to hear more from me.
So I just wanted to give a little update on this special release day...
After a full week of pretty intense listening, a couple things have come up.
One, it doesn't seem to be growing old, and also, my initial feelings seem to be holding up, not increasing or decreasing much.
The biggest change was, that after a week of almost always skipping over The Best Thing/Get Out and Am Soul, it kind of hit me out the blue today. I let them play and oddly, the Best Thing/Get Out combo became sort of new highlight for me.
These are damn good songs. Not up in my top tier, but really good. And if this album would have just all dropped like SOI, I think that these two would be getting a FAR different reception than they are now.
American Soul is still not one that I dont want to go back to. I listen once in a while, but its just not my thing, even though, i can recognize a lot of good about it.
Lights of Home has actually become one that I just love to listen through. One that I kind of get lost in. It feels natural and flows well. still gets knocked down slightly with the choral section on the end. So instead of a 9, more like an 8.5.
The big 6 for me
Love is All
Summer of Love
Red Flag
Little Things
Landlady - (made me cry on the way to work this morning)
13 (made me cry on the way home from work yesterday)
Just stay tremendous for me. Loving them.
Blackout is the blackout. A really good song that is an inch or two from being great.
The Showman. Oh the Showman. Why are you on this album Showman??!! What a nice bonus song you would have made. changing it to fall in between Summer of love and Red Flag helps a lot. Showman into Little Things was bizarre.
Also, Put Blackout between Red Flag and Landlady. So much better.
All in all, still such a strong album for me. I revise my initial "possible best since AB" to Best since POP. And SOI is second best since POP. So they have a great pair of albums here.