it only took 10 years

and a Mercer to bring it home

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i’m 33 years old and i think it’s time to finally admit it: i was wrong about After the Disco , the follow-up to Broken Bells’(s’s?!) absolutely fucking stellar 2010 self-titled debut. listen:

Broken Bells was a fucking masterpiece. that album has immaculate vibes. i honestly don’t remember how much preparation i’d had - i’d heard the first single, thought it was neat or something. if i recall correctly, the full album leaked not even a week or two later. a whole new album. boom! escaping into the dirty, melancholy soundscapes was a real treat for something i didn’t even know was going to exist a month prior. it occupies the same space in my head that The Good, The Bad, & The Queen’s 2007 debut (also self-titled) does: floaty, rainy, and cold, but somehow thumpy, and also a long lullabye. i’m trying to think of another album that sits in that same spot and i’m coming up short.

but this isn’t about the debut - After the Disco came out in January 2014, approximately 4 years after i’d first listened obsessively to the first one. and that was a huge 4 years. in January 2010 i was a second-semester college freshman in Ames preparing to retake Calc 1, making it my 6th and ultimately final semester of some form of first-level calculus since junior year of high school. in January 2014 i was half a year into my first big-boy job, living in Chicago above a Jimmy John’s. less math, more smells. it changes a person. but most significantly, the stakes were different: this time, there was anticipation and expectations, two variables completely missing from the first round. oooops - did i do thaaaat?!

i’d been listening to the iTunes sample previews, i’d been getting hyped for the singles, i was following the strange Kate Mara/Anton Yelchin series of music video/short film things. i was pretty wrapped up and the bar was high. when the album finally dropped for an NPR First Listen-type thing i was so excited and i think pretty whelmed. i think it’s actually kind of the first song’s fault - i don’t think the rest of the album really ever hits the high of the exciting descending melodies of “Perfect World”. it’s a pretty huge intro that i still think might have been better suited bringing the album to a close. it was kind of like “Raging Bull” at Six Flags Great America where the first huge drop is so big and thrilling that the rest of the peaks and valleys aren’t really all that noteworthy - they’re just kinda there.

but look, man - i’ve been listening more here and there the last couple weeks and i gotta say: it’s actually pretty fucking good. oooops!

i’m not going to dissect song-by-song because it’s fucking 3:45 AM but the back third of “Control” goes hard. it also cleverly (but effectively!) cheats its way out of a full fade-out, which is good, because i can’t think of a single song where i was glad it faded out instead of coming to a full stop. how are you gonna do that live, musicians? dorks. (i didn’t try very hard right now but it’s something i’ve been thinking a lot about for years and promise to do more thoughtfully next time. for now you’ll need to trust me.)

anyways the album goes way harder than i ever gave it credit for and i’ve come around: i actually think it’s a Pretty Fucking Solid Sophomore Record.

Broken Bells released a third album a year and change ago and i think i listened to it once. ask me again when i’m 43 and i’ll let you know what i think. it’s just another 10 years - i can change!

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anyways, i think that about wraps this up here. substack was a fun run, maybe even a turkey trot. but nazis can fuck off. follow me on Pownce. jk i’ll probably just move to a self-hosted blog thing

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