ok i don't remember exactly what i meant back then, but i'm pretty sure i was "the fuck?"'ing at you implying that Miss Machine, Irony is a Dead Scene and to a lesser extent Calculating Infinity were full of skippable tracks. i summed up my feeling about the album pretty well in my own review, but to quote my favorite line: fortunately, they rebounded most elegantly.
favorite is Calculating Infinity. and Under The Running Board is also really awesome. I don't like Ire Works as much :/
The album did not age incredibly well for me, and while I think that the newest is better...like wogbog, I still don't understand the level of polarization between this and the others for some people...like...if you LOVE Miss Machine, how can Ire Works be anything less than just mediocre? and YES, every one of their albums (including Ire Works) has skippable tracks. Miss Machine had Unretrofied (which is skippable not because it's a pop song but because it's a bad pop song; the poppy side of Dillinger didn't truly reach maturity until Ire Works), Calculating Infinity had a few unmemorable tracks, and the EP has the Come to Daddy cover which has nothing beyond novelty appeal. But yeah I was WAY too hyperbolic with my review.
i love tdep's pop sound, but i have never found unretrofied to be catchy in the least. dunno; just not a strong song, in my opinion.
I SMELLLLLLL THAT WHOOOOORRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Ire Works is their strongest album. BUT WHATEVER.
Actually I'm listening to it now and it really loses momentum during Sick On A Sunday/When Acting As A Particle. Everything else is great though. I think I'm gonna take back my statement about it being their strongest.
Ire Works is my least favorite full-length album from TDEP. I don't find the songs nearly as memorable or intense, and Gil Sharone just doesn't have the same flair that Chris Pennie did. I don't like the songs between "Black Bubblegum" and "82588". I've owned this album for four years and I still have trouble recalling what they sound like. They have some very, very good material on here like the first three songs, "82588", "Milk Lizard", "Horse Hunter", etc. but I find a significant percentage of the songs to be filler.
Ire Works beats the tits off of the newest one. Option Paralysis isn't bad at all but they're so comfortable now in their "super-heavy intro/long calmdown bridge with bad Patton/Reznor vox/super-heavy outro" formula it's probably the beginning of their creative decline.
