Liner Notes (February 22nd, 2025)

This week’s newsletter has early thoughts on the new Underoath album, some music recs of things I’ve been really enjoying over the past few weeks, and some website updates. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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A Few Things

As I wrote about last week, I’ve been spending my evenings trying to do something productive with my time. Less social media. Less doomscrolling. And that means I’ve been rolling out a bunch of updates to the website. My favorite of the bunch is a big re-write of my music-sharing project. Re-doing this to be faster, better, and specifically to work with my micro blog is one of the more satisfying projects I’ve completed in a while. I have some other ideas for this and plan to continue integrating it in other places on the website. The other big update was a major refactoring of the main website’s codebase for handling caching. The new version should be significantly faster for all users, but specifically for supporter/logged in members. I also improved how the main website handles Dark Mode, and this experience on the main website should be greatly improved. No more white flashes. And a much faster transition if you have the auto option selected. There were a bunch of other little updates to make the website work better with the new cache backend, and I still have a few other bugs to work out, but it’s been fun to get back into this code. I even had time to hide a few easter eggs. More updates to come!
I’ve written about Drafts many times, but this week I found another use case for it. Every once in a while, I’ll make a note that I need to make sure I see/keep it in front of my mind for a while. For example, if I’m downstairs and need to remember to get something the next time I go upstairs. The ability to “pin” a Draft to the lock screen as a “live activity” means that the note is right there, front and center, and virtually unmissable. Very helpful.
Less helpful? Opening up Apple Music and seeing this monstrosity. I can tolerate minor “ads” in my apps for new features or services; I get it. But this filled me with rage, which is ironic given the content of this playlist. Taking over the entire screen? Unacceptable. These paper cuts over time harm a brand’s reputation, and they add up often without a company even knowing they’re ticking off their most loyal customers.

Music Thoughts

There are certain bands that seem always to find a way to meet me where I am. These are the kind of bands that I have been following for the better part of my music-listening life, and I’ve just grown up with and have liked, or loved, practically everything they’ve done in their career. I first started listening to them in 2004. If I remember correctly (and at this age, who knows how accurate this is), it was the summer before heading back to college for my senior year that They’re Only Chasing Safety dominated my Discman. I distinctly remember playing that thing in my silver VW Jetta and pulling out of a parking lot with my windows down on a summer day. I’ve been following the band ever since. It feels like every album cycle has a bit of controversy. Fans don’t like the new direction. The band often says something about their past album that upsets one part of the fandom or ignites new arguments. I’ve primarily tried to ignore all of that. Because the music, the songs, almost always work for me. Yes, I even enjoy Erase Me. And I thought Voyeurist was one of the best of the year. Their new album takes a similar track as the last two, leaning closer to Voyeurist than Erase Me, and mixing a cocktail of heavy, catchy, and electronic elements through the songs. Early standouts for me include “Devil” and “Loss,” which I think should have been early-release singles. And I’m drawn to the “And Then There Was Nothing” through the “Spinning in Place” run. After two listens, I knew this was an instant pre-order for me. And I’ve listened to it at least once every few days over the last few weeks, and it continues to grow on me. The streak continues; this one’s also a winner.
I checked out this Sunday (1994) album this week, and it was my favorite discovery in a long while. It reminds me a little of Phoebe Bridgers, a little of Wolf Alice, and maybe even a little early Stars. It’s fantastic. Add in the single released on Friday, and you have an incredible ten-song collection. Highly recommended.
I also recommend this Heartwork album, Revisionist History. I started following the artist after he did an acoustic cover of Blink-182’s Enema of the State, but this collection of tracks almost feels pulled from an earlier era. It is the kind of thing that would have been a hit on the website in 2006-2008. I could have seen them on any of the big labels of the time and I love it. Absolutely worth your time.
I’ve never been a big Sleeping With Sirens fan. That style has never really been the kind of music I was drawn to. However, when I saw that Kellin Quinn was working with Aaron Marsh of Copeland on a new project, that got my eyebrow raised. And I am very impressed with the new Haunted Mouth album. It’s a fitting name for the project because it does have this haunted feeling to it, but layered, calm, and you can feel Aaron’s fingerprints all over this.
Anxious’ new album Bambi came out on Friday, and the best way I can describe it is that after my first listen, all I was thinking about is how excited and happy I am that bands still make music like this. Yesterday, I saw Craig Manning make this comment in the album thread: “The kind of album I would have absolutely just lived off back in high school. I love that there are still bands doing this.” Yep! That’s the feeling. It would have been all I played for months on end at 16. And at 41, it still works on me.
I enjoyed my first listen of Sam Fender’s People Watching. Very Bruce-inspired but solid, and the length is much better than his last, where it felt its runtime. I also liked, but didn’t love, my first spin of the new One OK Rock album. I prefer the Japanese language versions of their albums/songs, and this has some good stuff on it. There are also a few that feel like potential skips (the chorus on “+Matter” was driving me up the wall).
A Day to Remember went old school with their new album release by releasing it to physical stores first. Interesting strategy. It, inevitably, leaked. The act of which is now almost nostalgic in its own right. I only spun the album once so far, and there were a few things on it that sounded like something I’d come back to. I’ll need to be in the right mood for that kind of music, and right now, I’ve been leaning in other directions. I could see it coming back this summer. The closer, “Closer Than You Think” was one that stood out on first blush.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 32 different artists, 46 different albums, and 376 different tracks (465 scrobbles). Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was passable. I expected more from the high reviews I saw.
Shogun was excellent. Brutal. But very good.
Going from Shogun to American Primeval is probably not fair to the latter because it’s just never going to compare. We have two episodes left, and it’s been … decent. Good soundtrack. I like Tim Riggins. But the story is not all that compelling to me.

Random and Personal Stuff

Um, so everything is really bad.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

Heartwork – Dust
Sunday (1994) – Tired Boy
Forrie – Pieces
Sam Fender – People Watching
Arrows in Action – Feel it Again
Sunday (1994) – Doomsday
Said the Sky – Love Let Me Go
PVIRS – My House (feat. Courtney LaPlante)
Haunted Mouths – Further Til We Disappear
No Motiv – Never Ending Cloudy Day

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by popdisaster00 in the “General Politics XII” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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