New Album news!!

[xjsb125]

Long Jonny recently ran into Mike in Toronto, and Mike said Raine had contacted him in regards to participating in the anniversary tour.

The song is catchy, as everyone has said. Lyrically, I think it's a regression, which I'm not a big fan of, but it works for a single. Guitar tone, and keys are really different, and I feel ok with that. The fact that they are trying new things is great. The vocal performance is fantastic. Someone poked Raine and woke him up. Look forward to seeing how it pans out live next month. As for Jeremy's absence, it's obvious to all of us. The drum sound will work itself out when a permanent replacement is found. Until then, nothing we can do to change that aspect of the music.

[DG]

It's definitely lyrically simple, which is a bit disappointing.

[faninor]

Okay my thoughts on the song. Haven't had a lot of time to listen and digest the song, but so far:

I like the production. Plenty of stuff layered in there -- this song was recorded and rushed out very quickly, but it doesn't sound it. There's a ton of looped samples. Makes sense given the producer's background, I think? Not unheard of for OLP, but it's been a few albums since they've released a song where samples played such a large role. The bridge is very different for them, and I like it. I'm curious to hear how the song will come across live.

Raine sounds really energetic here. Curve was kind of a return to form for his vocal work, and clearly he's continuing to put in the effort. The production adds some nice hooks in the verses that really bring out the vocals even more for me. The guitar work from Steve is strong, as usual. The drums are pretty rudimentary, but they do the job for this song. I'm not familiar with Jason, so I don't know if this track is typical for him or if he's holding back a bit, but I think it's appropriate not to draw too much attention to the drums on the first song released without Jeremy. I hope for more interesting drumming in the future.

I was hoping to hear a little more from Duncan. The bass is very straight forward. Like the drums, it does the job for the track. Nothing wrong with it, but I would've liked to hear one or two more melodic bass runs in there somewhere. Also, overall, I think if you strip away the production, the song itself is not particularly strong. Where Curve tried to stretch and test the band's creativity with more complex songwriting on many tracks -- and the band's story for that album was that Jason Lader as producer really challenged the band to do more -- this song is very simple and straight forward at its core, and on this track they don't seem to be pushing themselves quite in the same way. Which is fine for a single song, but I'd hope for more when we hear a whole album.

[MindsOnLoan]

Song is definitely catchy and perfect for summer. I don't think I'll necessarily be listening to it much, but I don't hate it like I did All You Did or The End.

[DG]

[matt292]

Given it a few more listens, thank you to those that recorded it!

My initial reaction wasn't as strong as Heavyweight - that song gave me chills, made the hair on my neck stand up and nearly (nearly!) brought a tear to my eye.

This didn't quite do it, but I love the intro, really got me into it. I really like it, got lots of energy, like AFAYC, and the lyrics seem to fit better? I always felt AFAYC and even TEIWWB (which I actually love, interesting to hear people not liking it) had lyrics that were too long and awkward to get into the timing? (Does that make any sense? I don't know much about music technical terms at all)

This'll definitely go on the iPod and get more listens


It sounds like they've been toying with a few ideas from what I've heard of the interview - I wonder if they'll play more new stuff than just this at the festivals!

Thanks again everybody! Would not have been able to get a hold of it without this forum, appreciate it a lot!

Cheers

Matthew

[Tinman]

I agree with the weak lyric statement. If its meant to be the single, that does explain it some (the masses don't want to have to think about a songs meaning, and raine learned how to dumb down his lyrics for gravity via bob rock). But the "See all these walls Come tumb-uh-ling down" is not only cliche, but it's too close to "When all these walls come down
They'll shake us" for my taste... in the same way Rising tide's " The calm before the storm, the tide of rage." felt like a rehash of "calm before the storm, you better swim". I'm hoping the rest of the content they're working on taps into a little more of an artistic vocabulary... but if this is theoretically a mainstream album, then I would expect fairly simplistic lyrics for most of the content.

[A2K]

Anyone else get a "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors feel to this song?

[FireGX]

Where are you guys re-listening to it? Or is someone PMing it to you?

[A2K]

[auolp]

So has anyone ID'd the drummer in the vids on Instagram from soundcheck? Is that Boesel or is someone else playing this string of shows?

[xjsb125]

From his appearance, not Boesel compared to other videos I've seen of him.

[faninor]

Not sure who is drumming there. Glad to see Robin's still playing with them though!

[A2K]

My thoughts on Won't turn back:

I actually adore this track. It's my favorite OLP tune since Paper Moon. Musically it's a radical adjustment in an exciting direction, and I personally feel the song has more depth than some of the CM'ers have given it credit. It's poppy yes, but it's well layered and the conga and keyboard create a new sound for OLP.

Now to the lyrics: many of you mention that the lyrics are simplictic and they are. However, just because something is simple doesn't mean it can't have depth. I almost see it lyrically as an extension of Not Done Yet from We All Get Lighter, and when you couple that with the exit stage right of Jeremy, the lyrics are powerful!

[A2K]

Okay, I have confirmed the lyric, went to the man himself on twitter.

It is indeed: Start

[johnpeterson]

hmm interesting, i could have swore it was "starve" as a play on the common phrase "you can lead a horse to water, but can't make him drink".

just a question to the OLP experts here on the CM - i was browsing around wikipedia and read upon this paragraph on the article for "clumsy".... can anyone verify if any of this is true??

Collaborations between band members and the co-writing producer broke down and writing sessions at the producer's studio resulted in nothing of use. The decision was made by Raine Maida that the way to resolve the situation was to change the line-up. It was either Mike Turner or Chris Eacrett. The concern then turned to what challenges would be faced with the task of replacing either. With Turner threatening legal recourse and Maida's school friend Duncan Coutts a bass player in his own band, the choice was simple.

[xjsb125]

Never heard that before. Read an old interview with Jeremy where he said Chris was hard to work with in the studio so they asked him to leave the band.

[faninor]

I never heard that before either -- maybe Chris or his sister contributed that.

[xjsb125]

[LifeRiot]

I was doing cardio/lifting at the gym for 3+ hours today. This song was on repeat the entire time. I tried to change it to something else, but it just came back to this. There are some arpeggios in the song that made me think of Muse. Never have they used that in a song. It's not Our Lady Peace, but it's still good.