echolyn - I Heard You Listening

[LeFrog]

Just got this one a week ago. So far, what I'm hearing sounds like a fairly successful attempt to reconcile the two, somewhat different stylistic strains of their current, "mature" period: The understated, stylistically consistent, borderline mainstream, song-comes-first esthetic of Cowboy Poems Free or "the windowpane album", and the denser, busier, proggier approach found on Mei or The End is Beautiful. My opinion may change as I listen more, but that's how it looks to me right now.

Pretty much spot on, I think.
I still remember your review of the "Window Pane" album on the old site, which perfectly summed up my thoughts about that album.

[Baribrotzer]

Pretty much spot on, I think.
I still remember your review of the "Window Pane" album on the old site, which perfectly summed up my thoughts about that album.

Thanks.

And it's good to hear that someone agreed with me back then.

I always worried that the review came across as almost entirely negative, when in fact it was meant as (highly) mixed: The praise I gave - that the songs, taken singly, were excellent and as good as anything they'd ever done - was brief and almost phrased as a throwaway. Whereas the criticism - that those songs were also very similar, very stylistically consistent, and that while such an approach was common and even expected for a mainstream album, because of it "windowpane" didn't really work as a prog album - was dwelt upon and explained at numbing length. The reason being that if you're going to criticize something everyone else loves, you'd better explain very clearly why.

[LeFrog]

Thanks.

And it's good to hear that someone agreed with me back then.

I always worried that the review came across as almost entirely negative, when in fact it was meant as (highly) mixed: The praise I gave - that the songs, taken singly, were excellent and as good as anything they'd ever done - was brief and almost phrased as a throwaway. Whereas the criticism - that those songs were also very similar, very stylistically consistent, and that while such an approach was common and even expected for a mainstream album, because of it "windowpane" didn't really work as a prog album - was dwelt upon and explained at numbing length. The reason being that if you're going to criticize something everyone else loves, you'd better explain very clearly why.

I think your point came across clearly, in fact it's only when I read your review that I understood my gut feeling about the album (precisely the fact that it wasn't quite as good as the sum of its parts for the reasons you have explained).
I don't get that with the new album: I don't think it includes anything as excellent as the best tracks off Windowpane but there's no question it works much better as a whole. In that respect it's closer to The End Is Beautiful, I think.

[Plasmatopia]

Thanks.

And it's good to hear that someone agreed with me back then.

I always worried that the review came across as almost entirely negative, when in fact it was meant as (highly) mixed: The praise I gave - that the songs, taken singly, were excellent and as good as anything they'd ever done - was brief and almost phrased as a throwaway. Whereas the criticism - that those songs were also very similar, very stylistically consistent, and that while such an approach was common and even expected for a mainstream album, because of it "windowpane" didn't really work as a prog album - was dwelt upon and explained at numbing length. The reason being that if you're going to criticize something everyone else loves, you'd better explain very clearly why.

I remember reading that. I guess I did come away feeling like you were overall somewhat leaning toward the negative side, but I didn't dwell on that much. I mostly just enjoyed reading it!

[Baribrotzer]

A general question:

How do the "B-sides" from "windowpane" compare with the tracks used on the album? I haven't heard them. Brett's comment: "In addition to the points I’ve already made above, these songs felt like they didn’t add any emotional, musical, or lyrical intent that was not already covered by the 8 songs chosen." suggests that they had the same stylistic consistency as the tracks they put on "windowpane". And that in turn suggests that this consistency was something consciously planned, and not simply a matter of all the songs happening to fall into about the same tempo, to have no guitar or keyboard solos, to have few or no instrumental passages that stood apart from the vocal (except for the initial "overture" section of "Island"), and so forth.

[LeFrog]

A general question:

How do the "B-sides" from "windowpane" compare with the tracks used on the album? I haven't heard them. Brett's comment: "In addition to the points I’ve already made above, these songs felt like they didn’t add any emotional, musical, or lyrical intent that was not already covered by the 8 songs chosen." suggests that they had the same stylistic consistency as the tracks they put on "windowpane". And that in turn suggests that this consistency was something consciously planned, and not simply a matter of all the songs happening to fall into about the same tempo, to have no guitar or keyboard solos, to have few or no instrumental passages that stood apart from the vocal (except for the initial "overture" section of "Island"), and so forth.

Yeah I appreciated Brett posting that in reponse to one of my comments.
Accumulated Blur is absolutely essential: beautiful tune, I just can't fathom how they could think it wouldn't add anything to the album! BUT it does fall into the same slow tempo category as the other tracks... yet the final 1'45 has no match on the album as it was released (gorgeous!).

I quite like This Is How We Left It and Moments With No Sound but agree that they wouldn't have added much to the overall feel if only because of their tempos (slow, again).

Another Stone is more uptempo and would have brought a bit more diversity in that respect. At 7 minutes in length it also has a few instrumental sections so this one could have changed the balance of the album somewhat, but it's not among my favorites.

You're a bit harsh about the lack of strong instrumental sections on the album apart from Islands. Some Memorial and The Cardinal And I have some strong solos I think.

[Haruspex Carnage]

i think This Is How We Left It is the worst of the bunch but that's not to say it's a bad tune...the sax section is a lil ho-hum.

Ray's performances on all these songs are pretty moving though i think personally...but they all also don't fit the mood of the entire album...When Crows Fly is good up until the noodly jam.

Overall i think they're all worth hearing and owning...any word on when the b-sides off IHYL will be released?

[bill g]

Finally got and listened to the new one. Very nice. Some songs are especially good. 'Carried Home' gave me chills and nearly tears it was so beautiful, 'Emyrean Views' I think it was called, also very good melody there, and killer opening track. Haven't got to the last 2 tracks yet, but it won't be long. Too bad I wasn't able to get this earlier, now I feel like I just arrived at a party where everyone had gone home.

[bill g]

My choice was goose island IPA, time for bed soon though so more listening tomorrow

Oooh hey, that's one of my favorite beers. (My very favorites are Double Mountain Molten Lava IPA, and Ten-Fity (10.5%) stout, not that anyone gives a crap)

[aith01]

Finally got and listened to the new one. Very nice. Some songs are especially good. 'Carried Home' gave me chills and nearly tears it was so beautiful, 'Emyrean Views' I think it was called, also very good melody there, and killer opening track. Haven't got to the last 2 tracks yet, but it won't be long. Too bad I wasn't able to get this earlier, now I feel like I just arrived at a party where everyone had gone home.

Was just listening to this yesterday (or maybe the day before) at work. I find it more digestible than the windowpane album, even though that one had some truly spine-tingling moments.

Empyrean Views is a beautiful track, one of my favorites. Love Chris Buzby's choice of sounds on that one.

[devoidzer0]

In case anyone missed this, it's quite an interesting read. Producer Glenn Rosenstien's verbose thoughts on As the World and echolyn 20 years later:

https://www.facebook.com/echolynband...68814309854121

[perpetual strange]

"Empyrean Views" has a spine-tingling chorus, and sounds so good after "Warjazz" which does nothing for me emotionally, although I can kind of appreciate it on a strictly intellectual level I guess. But "Carried Home" and "Sound of Bees" may be my favorites. Gorgeous tunes, those. Seems I favor the odd numbered tracks. (except for reversing the last two tracks)

[undergroundrailroad]

In case anyone missed this, it's quite an interesting read. Producer Glenn Rosenstien's verbose thoughts on As the World and echolyn 20 years later:

https://www.facebook.com/echolynband...68814309854121

Great stuff! It's amazing that As The World even exists.

[Boceephus]

I Heard You Listening gets played on high rotation.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Tapatalk

[PlaneGroovy]

My understanding is that the LP will be available at Plane Groovy and was not limited to those who pre-ordered.

Update on vinyl availability; "I Heard You Listening" is still available from the Plane Groovy store - which is now managed and run by Burning Shed. This means that you can combine albums from other labels into your order, which should help with shipping costs. We're now down to the last handful of copies of the window album; these are also available through the Plane Groovy store. The price rose when we were down to the last 50 copies, now that we're into the final 20 it has just gone up again. The same thing will happen with all Plane Groovy releases if there isn't a repressing planned.

Cheers, Chris

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

"The price rose when we were down to the last 50 copies, now that we're into the final 20 it has just gone up again. The same thing will happen with all Plane Groovy releases if there isn't a repressing planned. "

That seems a tad mercenary; why can't the original price remain the same until the pressing sells out? It seems a bit odd for a label that releases an album to raise the price as the quantity of product runs lower.

---Geoff (P-leasant G-reen)

[Progbear]

This is one of the top albums of 2015 for me. It’s prime Echolyn, that’s for sure, so if you like them, you need to hear this. Overall, it may be their best album. Certainly their best-sounding. As much as I liked STB and ATW on a purely musical basis, those 90s Korg/Yamaha synth sounds have aged very badly!