Laughing City
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The_Paronomasial_Mattoid
Vintage Newbie


@Man Truth. Even they have said they really don't even like Combinations, like, at all. Also, I think it was the way it turned out. They liked the demos more than the album, said Sherri via twitter.

I feel like Eisley is heading back into the direction they initially planned pre-WB. Given it's more updated. I'm happy Eisley isn't staying the same. It would be quite underwhelming for this album to sound like RN or Combinations. It also wouldn't show any growth.

@Oli There's a very good chance that you won't like Eisley's music from here on out. Just a heads up.

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kulvir wrote:
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Nowhere Man wrote:
mr pine wrote:
is there a difference between dubstep and techno?
you know besides the name?

techno: uhnd chik uhnd chik uhnd chik uhnd chik
dubstep: BOOM Chik.. Boom Boom Boom Chik.. PEOOOWWwwww BOOM BOWowoWOWoWOWow zipzipzipzipzipwoowooowoow EEEEEeeeeeerrr BOOM BOOM BOOM Splat!
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olimario
Laughing Citizen


The Man In The Moon wrote:
olimario wrote:
I can't be sure, but I think I called half of The Valley butt rock.
I called Deep Space plodding and lacking strong hooks, 'One Last Song' being the exception.


As I said, I like all of Room Noises, all of Combinations, and half of The Valley. I owned all of their early EPs starting in 2000? 1999? Whenever that was.


deep space lacking strong hooks? are you kidding?

also you know that combinations is technically eisley being closest to "butt rock" right?


Of course I'm not kidding. The first 2 songs on Deep Space just plod along. I've listened to them several times and there's nothing there musically to keep me interested.

Combinations is butt rock? In what sense? It's flowery and beautiful with strong melodies, strong hooks, and great lyrics.
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olimario
Laughing Citizen


I might like some of the music from here on out.
I honestly don't care about Eisley's opinion or anybody elses.

Jesus, it's like you can't like anything less than all of their music here without catching venom.

I like the pretty half of The Valley (Kind, I Wish, Watch It Die, etc...)
I like the second half of Deep Space (192 Days, One Last Song)

I like ALL of Merriment's album.
I like MOST of sucre's album.

There's plenty of music from this family for me collection.
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The Man In The Moon
Lost at Forum


olimario wrote:


Of course I'm not kidding. The first 2 songs on Deep Space just plod along. I've listened to them several times and there's nothing there musically to keep me interested.

Combinations is butt rock? In what sense? It's flowery and beautiful with strong melodies, strong hooks, and great lyrics.


what about 192 days? i think i remember you liking the demo when it came out in 09.'

combinations is butt rock in the sense that the album is very lyrically repetitive, and the hooks are some of the most generic hooks you can use. the songs kinda sound like they were polished to appeal to the lowest common denominator, but it's not exactly well done either. i showed one of my coworkers room noises and combinations before the valley came out and she said hands down room noises was way better.

however, i will admit, songs off of combinations were what got me into eisley initially, but i can't stand listening to half the album. i mostly only like i could be there for you, sometimes invasion, and sometimes combinations.

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The_Paronomasial_Mattoid
Vintage Newbie


@Oli It's fine that you don't like their new stuff, I'm just saying, it seems like you're stuck in a certain era of Eisley and that you are hell bent on having nothing to do with the new direction they've chosen to take. I'm not saying you are, but it sure comes across that way. Eisley as a band, not their side projects or their sibling's music.

If you don't like it, that's fine. You don't have to. However, a majority of people do like the way they're heading, musically.

And I agree with @Man. I think Combinations was their weakest record to date. I don't hate it, but I almost never listen to it because nothing grabs me like it used to. I liked it when it first came out, but it pales in comparison to RN for me. I don't think all of the album is repetitive, however, half of it is. There are shining moments in each of those repetitive songs, though. Invasion's is the bridge and last chorus, with the overlap, as is Taking Control's. Go Away's is the verses. Come Clean's is the bridge to the end when the strong harmonies kick it. Ten Cent Blues' is probably the most repetitive song, musically, however, I love the lyrics to that song.

To be fair, I don't listen to RN much anymore, either, though, I do still love it. I listen to Sucre a lot more than Eisley nowadays. I will say, I expect Currents to grab me and grab me good.

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cynlovescandy wrote:
kulvir wrote:
I bet R. Kelly approves of peeing in the shower.

The world is R. Kelly's shower. It's a golden world.


Nowhere Man wrote:
mr pine wrote:
is there a difference between dubstep and techno?
you know besides the name?

techno: uhnd chik uhnd chik uhnd chik uhnd chik
dubstep: BOOM Chik.. Boom Boom Boom Chik.. PEOOOWWwwww BOOM BOWowoWOWoWOWow zipzipzipzipzipwoowooowoow EEEEEeeeeeerrr BOOM BOOM BOOM Splat!
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olimario
Laughing Citizen


I don't think I'm stuck on a certain era of Eisley, but maybe that's just my take. I think it's pretty good that I still enjoy about half of their music.
At least I give every song a fair shake.

Eisley can do whatever they want to do as a band. I don't want them to cater to fans or compromise their integrity. I will just hand pick the songs I like and keep them.


For me, Good Half of The Valley > Room Noises > Combinations > Good Half of Deep Space > Bad half of Deep Space > Bad Half of The Valley
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mikep0922
Lost at Forum


I can't wait until LP 4 comes out! I just noticed on i-tunes that they're touting Paramours' new release. I sure would like to see their banner replaced with Eisley's!
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wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


I respect Oli's discerning taste and it's funny cause as far as the Valley & Deep Space we have exactly the opposite taste with One Last Song being the common like. I'm with Oli on liking Combinations, sans a couple of songs.

It's harder for me to think of Room Noises as an album because so many of the songs predate it, making it less exciting to me, cause the pre-existing songs already have a place in my heart, and don't really feel like they are a part of that record, but their own separate entities used to extend the playtime so Room Noises wasn't just another EP release.

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MacRVA
Sea Post King


After reading this conversation I feel so unsophisticated in my taste for Eisley haha. I love every song on Combinations, that was the record that got me into Eisley. Started listening to them when that album came out and I still love it. But The Valley is definitely my favourite record by far. The only Eisley song that I've ever not been in love with was 192 Days.
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tungsten
Sea Post King


I'm surprised at the beating Combinations is taking . . . Come Clean, I Could Be There for You, and Many Funerals had all become huge fan favorites at live Eisley shows prior to the Valley cycle. Still think it's a great record. Go Away to, I remember that being the first song I heard from that record and being completely blown away. I still think that group of songs was a huge leap forward for Eisley. As a 24 year old guy, I cannot always listen to Room Noises and without feeling like I should hand in my man card (especially on tracks like Brightly Wound). Never get that on Combinations, it feels completely mature. I think people's problems with the record may more be related to the stigma surrounding the whole Warner Bros. time period than the actual quality of the songs themselves.
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wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


tungsten wrote:
As a 24 year old guy, I cannot always listen to Room Noises and without feeling like I should hand in my man card (especially on tracks like Brightly Wound). Never get that on Combinations, it feels completely mature. I think people's problems with the record may more be related to the stigma surrounding the whole Warner Bros. time period than the actual quality of the songs themselves.


That may be the case, and then there's the whole stolen demo thing that got people attached to versions of songs, and entire songs that didn't appear on the final album, or in a for akin to what they'd heard, regardless of the bands wishes regarding the leaks.

Since I out age you by a full cycle of the Chinese Astrological Calendar, plus a year, I feel your "man-card" statement Laughing

Even they, Eisley, had a problem with being labeled "Fairytale" music about Unicorns and Mermaids. They had a ethereal element that was enchanting, but also seemed grounded, with just enough grit in their sound to be compelling on Laughing City and Marvelous Things EPs, and I didn't get that from most of the new songs on Room Noises. I was low to warm to it. WHen Combinations came out, the songs that struck me the most were the ones that balanced the "Glow" and the "Grit" that I felt they did so well. The ones that went too far in one direction left me cold. But the ones that embraced it reminded me of why I was so eager to follow the band.

I like Combinations as an album collectively, but on a song to song basis, I would only put 5 of it's tracks on a mix for anyone I wanted to expose to Eisley for the first time and make a case for them. The others represent extremes that I feel paint the band into corners I wouldn't otherwise be able to explain, defend to a critical listener. Room Noises, minus the tracks cherry-picked from the EPs that preceded it, is 8 songs deep, and none of them really go headlong into that "grit" that made the EPs so appealing to me. That made it hard for me to enjoy Room Noises. As a whole the album has a better collective flow and feel, and based on the EP songs they used, with the exception of Marvelous Things, which stood out as the darkest moment, but made sense given the uplift of the chorus.

The Valley felt like a refinement of that balance of "Glow & Grit" and though there were some wild stylistic shifts a la' Combinations, the subject matter bridged the content together. The moody vibe worked well for me. Then Deep Space took it to another level, given Lights Out was a direct response to the threat of Foreclosure on their family home, an anthem on what home means, and one last song being so vibed out. Those were the first bits of songs we heard via live vids, so when Laugh it Off and Deep Space maintained that organic warmth in the tone of the recordings, the sense of space and dynamics, I was taken aback. I didn't expect Eisley to put out something like that, but it was SO GOOD, so well done, they effectively outdid the bands I would hope to hear that kind of music from.

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tungsten
Sea Post King


I love the overall feel and direction of Deep Space, but none of the songs really stuck with me other than Lights Out. I think Laugh it Off is exceptional live though, perhaps one of their best live songs from all their albums. However, I never sing any of the songs off of Deep Space whereas I am still humming and singing tracks from the Valley. I sang I Wish so much that my whole lab group in Genetics knew (and loved) the song even though they had no idea who Eisley was. None of the Deep Space songs really sank in to my head (or heart) like the ones from their previous albums. When you say it is SO GOOD, I have to agree with you in the area of sound/vocals/vibe, though I do not feel that is their strongest songwriting.
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wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


Yeah, I'm thinking of feel, that on Deep Space, Eisley seems to have gelled as a band, as arrangers, and as producers. The tricky thing about songwriting is, once you've written a good song, figuring out how to make it sound "complete" and convey a tone that suits the melodies and hooks. You can make it too pretty, or make it too dirty, with choices in regards to amplification, effects, the overall mix of elements, how long one part of the songs is versus another...

I think they nailed that on Deep Space. It has a very mature vibe, the music of adults in the midst of life, as opposed to bounding forth discovering adult life for the first time & taking it in with youthful resolve (Combinations), or the dejection of life turning on you and accountability being unmet by other adults when it's the only expectation you have left from an idealistic youth (The Valley) and turning that into a survivor's mentality.

Deep Space, to me, sounded like a band embracing adult life for what it is and deciding that it wouldn't get the better of them. That they would own it and fashion it into something they can appreciate on their own terms. It's weird, but when I think about it, in another reality Stacy could easily be a Norah Jones type balladeer, and Laugh It Off was like the best Adult Alternative song/ Quiet Storm type thing, just so rich, and taken with Just Like We Do, I Could Be There For You, and Kind, makes Stacy stand out as a veritable genius in that regard.

In that same Alternative Universe Sherri gets to go all out as a rocker, and Eisley, when she fronts them, is a blend of The Cranberries at their most driving and melodic & just cause I like them so much, Flyleaf. I wouldn't have said that before, cause even their hardest songs were always so refined and textured, but Light's Out tapped into the best kind of swirling, kinetic rhythmic sorcery. Then Deep Space, the song, at least for the verses, reminded me a lot of Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie, but the chorus just "Blasts Off" *rimshot*. I love that, and melody of that huge chorus, and the bridge, are what I would call Epic. It's definitely "listening" music. More cerebral than visceral. I'm a big fan of that though. For Eisley to create that kind of music un-compromised was a pleasant surprise. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for those of use who dig Shoegazer type rock, that was a Obelisk of a tune right there.

So yeah, I sing along to Light's Out all the time, and Laugh It Off is hard for me not to sing along to, but I don't cause I find their alto voices so arresting on that song I just shut up. Deep Space is just ear candy to me, but a Jawbreaker or Green Apple Jolly Rancher Wink so I zone out/ space out, and let my self imagine fractals and what-not. One Last Song is like a lullaby for sung to those who don't want to go asleep, and just want to hang on longer in a sleepy haze taking it all in.

I'm skipping 192 days, cause for me that's like an intermission to break from all the intensity of one sort or another. That also gets me to thinking, how would we all like the Eisley albums if we took off all the songs that appeared previously on EPs?

Laughing City Would Be:

1. "I Wasn't Prepared" 3:33
3. "Tree Tops" 4:20
5. "Laughing City" 3:32

Marvelous Things Would go unchanged

Room Noises would be:

4. "Golly Sandra" 4:13
6. "Brightly Wound" 3:38
7. "Lost at Sea" 3:38
8. "My Lovely" 3:26
9. "Just Like We Do" 3:09
10. "Plenty of Paper" 3:21
11. "One Day I Slowly Floated Away" 3:35
12. "Trolley Wood" 3:22

Combinations would be unchanged

The Valley Would be:

2. "Smarter" 3:17
3. "Watch It Die" 3:10
4. "Sad" 3:19
5. "Oxygen Mask" 3:22
6. "Better Love" 3:19
7. "I Wish" 3:54
8. "Kind" 3:04
9. "Mr. Moon" 3:54
10. "Please" 3:30


As fate would have it, I came in on Marvelous Things, and backtracked and got Laughing City and loved it, and didn't hear any of their previous work until after Combinations came out, because I was so reinvigorated after hearing Combinations and the rediscovery of "Eisley rocking out" that I started digging a little deeper, largely in part to the LC, and it's links to orangegoldandgreen and strangeyellowpatterns. That was when I found out that the Eisley I first discovered was on that path sonically for longer than I thought, and seemed to have abruptly abandoned it in their new writing between Marvelous Things and Room Noises.

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princesstripandfall
Lost at Forum


you can stream "Drink The Water" at Nylon.
i definitely hear the Sucre force at work and lots of Stacy's early garageband bounce. Shocked?!
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vivalaspopie
Vintage Newbie


OH MY GOD. This is Eisley finally going in for the kill. This could be on any contemporary music mag mixtape or music festival lineup. This instrumentation is to die for. This is incredible. I love it so much. Holy s***, dudes, I feel like I've been waiting for this day forever. Potential reached.

(Now, can they really tour with HAIM? That would be amazing.)

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