Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Living With The Living"

CM1847

Album comes out March 20, but it leaked this week. I've heard mixed things, included that a track sounds like it is a Rage Against the Machine song, interesting. The general consensus seems to be that it isn't their best work, but it is still pretty good.

Here's the tracklist:

Fourth World War
The Sons Of Cain
Army Bound
Who Do You Love?
Colleen
A Bottle of Buckie
Bomb.Repeat.Bomb
La Costa Brava
Annunciation Day/Born on Christmas Day
The Unwanted Things
The Lost Brigade
The World Stops Turning
Some Beginner's Mind
The Toro and the Toreador
C.I.A.

"The Sons of Cain" is up on their myspace (http://www.myspace.com/tedleo) or available for download on their label's site: http://www.touchandgorecords.com. It is a pretty good song, a hooky little guitar part runs throughout. He posted the demo of "Army Bound" on his website (http://www.tedleo.com) a while back, it should be a good song as well.

Anybody heard the leak yet or anticipating this album? This, along with The Shins new album, were my two most anticipated albums coming into the year, can't wait to hear it.

fragileblake

Having heard the whole thing I can tell you that it will blow your fucking mind.
It sucks that I have to wait until April 16th to see him!!!!

CM1847

fragileblake wrote:

Having heard the whole thing I can tell you that it will blow your fucking mind.
It sucks that I have to wait until April 16th to see him!!!!

Always nice to hear some good impressions!

I caught them playing last year, barely. He cancelled his previous show due to losing his voice, and barely had it back when I saw him. Still, they kick a lot of ass live. They have great energy and sound great. I am trying to decide if I want a few hour drive to be able to see him in the Spring.

fragileblake

I would do it. Sadly I missed the last time he played Portland because a certain little band was playing the gorge ampitheatre the same night

off_the_record

good album, but not his best

CM1847

I'm going to try to see them play, I"m not even sure what night of the week it is or anything, but I would love to see them again, they put on a very good show.

While this thread is here, any fans of Chisel, Leo's band prior to starting the Pharmacists? I picked up their first LP a week or two ago, it is pretty good. I don't think it touches his Pharmacists work, but it still very enjoyable.

fragileblake

off_the_record wrote:

good album, but not his best

What would you say is the best. I can't decide between Tyranny of Distance and Shake the Sheets

CM1847

fragileblake wrote:

What would you say is the best. I can't decide between Tyranny of Distance and Shake the Sheets

Just to jump in on this, I would pick Shake the Sheets for being a straight up rock album from start to finish. There is nothing weak on the album. It isn't as divserse as Tyranny or Hearts of Oak, but I do think it is his most consistent album from start to finish. I have only recently began to put Hearts of Oak in the same category as Tyranny and Shake the Sheets, it took me a while to get into that album.

1- Shake the Sheets
2- Tyranny of Distance
3- Hearts of Oak

CM1847

bump.

It comes out tomorrow, anybody picking it up? Most of the review sites are putting up their Modest Mouse reviews today so I haven't really read too much about this one. The AMG review didn't give it a very good score(3.5 out of 5), but the reviewer says the album is good, they just wanted something different, their only complaint is that he didn't change his sound much.

Other than that I haven't found any reviews on it aside from a few on RYM and various leak impressions. I'm quite excited about the album, been waiting a while for something new from Ted Leo.

transplant

I will be picking it up for sure. I hope he didn't change much, I like his style.

CM1847

transplant wrote:

I will be picking it up for sure. I hope he didn't change much, I like his style.

Same here, the AMG review actually made me more excited about it despite the bad score. The reviewer had nothing bad to say except that he/she wished he changed his sound. I think Shake the Sheets was amazing, I wouldn't mind at all if he kept that style and mixed it with some of his earlier sounds.

CM1847

I picked it up today at Best Buy and it came with a 5 track EP of new stuff. It got slammed pretty bad by TMT, but their complaint is the same as AMG, they expect him to change his sound. I've only listened to the first two songs, all I know so far is that the final version of Army Bound is much better than the demo.

fragileblake

Shit! My pre order is late, I wonder how long I'm going to have to wait to hear that EP. This is killin' me

cc10106

I pre-ordered the vinyl so hopefully it will arrive today. A free digital download, including the ep tracks, is supposed to accompany it. I'll have a better idea after listening 10 or so times. It's gonna be hard to top his last 2 records, for sure.

CM1847

ewww....really disappointing so far. He goes into a straight up pop rock mode for a while. Then the regge song is horrible. Almost every song on the album is either too long, doesn't rock hard enough or both. It might grow on me, but this is nowhere near as good as any of his last three albums.

transplant

I have this going right now.

AvocadoLady

What do you think of it so far? I'm going to pick it up after work.

CM1847

After being able to listen to it a few more times, the album sounds like Leo's attempt at making "London Calling", from the length of the album(over an hour) to the attempt at reggae, and the genre-hopping between almost straight pop to early punk. It ISN'T London Calling, but it does seem like he did his best to try to re-create it.

fragileblake

I don't really think he was trying to recreate anything, you're reading into things too much. In interviews hes mentioned that the way this record has come together has been more like Tyranny, a random collection of songs, opposed to the very calculated shake the sheets. Does every hour long album with lots of different textures have to be London Calling? I agree with Paste magazine who gave this an almost perfect review, there are a couple of clunkers but for the most part I think that although his sound hasn't changed much his hooks have gotten greater and his songs have more of an epic feel to them (even short ones like "annunciation day/born on christmas day".

transplant

My thoughts.

a. The CD is too long. For an artist like him who has more of a punk/rock focus, I don't see a reason a song should go over 4 minutes. There is simply not enough variety going on in each song to reach 6+ minute length. It should have closed with Beginner's Mind.

b. Why do artists feel the need to put < 1 minute filler at the start of a disc? It drives me nuts. Did the album really need Fourth World War? Did it set the mood for the rest of the disc? Would anybody put this on a mix?

c. I do like the variety. I actually really enjoy Unwanted Things. lite, poppy, could be a huge radio hit

d. the 3 some of Bottle of Buckie, Bomb.Repeat.Bomb and LaCosta Brava are sweet.

e. the only real throw aways for me are Tora and the Toreador and World Stops Turning.

f. standouts for me are those in point 'd' and Sons of Cain, Army Bound and Some Beginners Mind

I am giving this a solid 7. Definitely one of the better CD's I have listened to of late. Shake the Sheets is still my favorite.

CM1847

fragileblake wrote:

I don't really think he was trying to recreate anything, you're reading into things too much. In interviews hes mentioned that the way this record has come together has been more like Tyranny, a random collection of songs, opposed to the very calculated shake the sheets. Does every hour long album with lots of different textures have to be London Calling? I agree with Paste magazine who gave this an almost perfect review, there are a couple of clunkers but for the most part I think that although his sound hasn't changed much his hooks have gotten greater and his songs have more of an epic feel to them (even short ones like "annunciation day/born on christmas day".

I didn't mean he literally set down and tried to write London Calling part 2. I just mean that it comes off sounding like his best attempt to do so. I don't believe it was his intention to do anything like that, but I can't help but drawing the comparison since Shake the Sheets was so much a straightforward punk-rock album which drew many comparisons to The Clash.

Your explaination works much better, it is a collection of random songs rather than a cohesive album. There are a few straight pop/rock songs which work muhc better than I thought they would(A Bottle of Buckie, Who Do you Love?, Coleen, La Costa Bravo).

After listening more, my biggest(and really my only) complaint is that the stretch from Bomb.Repeat.Bomb to The Lost Brigade is the worst stretch of songs I have ever heard on a Ted Leo album. B.R.B. sounds like a Dismemberment Plan b-side, La Costa Brava is a bit enjoyable but not as good as the other pop-oriented songs on the album IMO, Annuciation Day I just don't like, same with Unwanted Things and The Lost Brigade is decent, but far too long.

At this point it is my least favorite album from Mr. Leo. There are some good songs, the changes in sound threw me for a loop on my first few listens, but I am starting to enjoy the majority of songs on the album. I think it would have been a very good 10-12 song album, but at its actual length and track-listing, it is a bit too bloated for me.