Anybody else a little underwhelmed by the new release?

[Warped Tapes]

I'll satisfy my hunger with other releases like the new Daft Punk.

like drawing blood from a stone trying to get anything out of that mess of an album

I only heard samples from Random Access Memories and didn't like it at all (I love Homework, Discovery and Tron Legacy, first got into Daft Punk in 1997).

Love Tomorrow's Harvest though.

[Cupz]

You guys should all listen to palace posy on repeat for a day.

Lackluster, PUH!

[Mcm L Xix]

It just doesn't excite me to the point where I feel hungry to re-listen to it.

Same here, still not giving up though.. I'm always slow with digesting new music so I still hope that I will get hungry soon.

While I do like the new album and might have listened to it at least 50 times now (I didn't count), I recognize the feeling as a good friend of mine (also a long-time BoC appreciator) expressed similar sentiments. And to a slight degree I share these sentiments enough to empathize with them to a certain degree.

I think that this is largely due to TH's desperate atmosphere. While supsense, anxiety and darkness have been present in BoC's previous music, TH adds paranoia and desperation to that. That can make it harder to stomach. Previous BoC tracks always felt like, in the end, things would end well for the hypothetical protagonist, so to speak. On Tomorrow's Harvest, on the other hand, it seems like the protagonist has had it. Correction: it feels like we all have had it. This time there is no escape.

That doesn't make it a bad record, but the feeling of redemption that most of BoC's previous music contained - one of its key features, imho - made place for a feeling of impending massive doom in the not too distant future.

So, my advice if you wanna enjoy the richness of the new tracks (because it actually *is* there) but have a hard time getting enthousiastic about it, is to mix them with other BoC tracks! Make your own playlist, containing the entire album, yet bring other tracks to bring the feeling of redemption and an antidote to TH's overall grimness.

[realspiel]

It just doesn't excite me to the point where I feel hungry to re-listen to it.

Same here, still not giving up though.. I'm always slow with digesting new music so I still hope that I will get hungry soon.

While I do like the new album and might have listened to it at least 50 times now (I didn't count), I recognize the feeling as a good friend of mine (also a long-time BoC appreciator) expressed similar sentiments. And to a slight degree I share these sentiments enough to empathize with them to a certain degree.

I think that this is largely due to TH's desperate atmosphere. While supsense, anxiety and darkness have been present in BoC's previous music, TH adds paranoia and desperation to that. That can make it harder to stomach. Previous BoC tracks always felt like, in the end, things would end well for the hypothetical protagonist, so to speak. On Tomorrow's Harvest, on the other hand, it seems like the protagonist has had it. Correction: it feels like we all have had it. This time there is no escape.

That doesn't make it a bad record, but the feeling of redemption that most of BoC's previous music contained - one of its key features, imho - made place for a feeling of impending massive doom in the not too distant future.

So, my advice if you wanna enjoy the richness of the new tracks (because it actually *is* there) but have a hard time getting enthousiastic about it, is to mix them with other BoC tracks! Make your own playlist, containing the entire album, yet bring other tracks to bring the feeling of redemption and an antidote to TH's overall grimness.

I don't find it that grimm though or dark just more like a soundtrack, which isnt a bad thing as I am an OST fan, i just find it less melodic and melancholy

[WeHadNormality]

I really don't understand how BoC fans can feel "a little underwhelmed" by this album. It gets better and better every time I listen to it. It blew me away on the first listen and is still blowing me away on the 20th/30th listen. Their whole back cat still amazes me every time I listen to any of it.

You people are fucking crazy. Seriously.

[coffeeandtv]

I find it interesting that some people have said this album lacks melody. I've found there are melodies all over the place, some that grab my attention straight away (like the synth line in Cold Earth) and others that take a number of listens before surfacing (like Jacquard Causeway).

I certainly don't find the album underwhelming, boring or 'safe' either. I would say it's actually quite overwhelming to the senses. This was the first BoC record that brought up serious imagery for me when listening to it and that's not something I'm used to with music. I remember the first time I listened to the live stream, I felt a bit like I was trapped in a Scifi movie/dream where there was absolute mayhem going on outside of my bedroom - with buildings on fire and armies at war, all sorts of horrible stuff. But I felt myself becoming strangely peaceful as the album progressed. When the last few songs came on this euphoric feeling came over me - like although everything outside of my bedroom had turned to shit I wasn't in any danger, I was completely safe and happy in there with this music...

I also think that the listening experience with BoC can greatly suffer if one is over analytical. If you can cast aside any preconceived notions about how you'd like the album to sound and all the hype, lock yourself away from the outside world and just 'listen' to the whole album with an open mind (with headphones), it can be a seriously amazing experience. Anyway, if you don't 'get' the album just yet I really hope the songs will come to life for you, as they did for me and many others.

[hexagon son]

I'll satisfy my hunger with other releases like the new Daft Punk.

like drawing blood from a stone trying to get anything out of that mess of an album

lol! As I will state as I have before. I think this their best release ever.

[drixlin]

I think this, and all of BoC's catalog, have different styles and trying to force a listen/like scenario in a certain environment to what you THINK it's going to sound like, is like trying to get a square peg in a circular hole.

For me, music has to have it's own life, and I usually find that life based on chance encounters with scenarios. Like randomly songs coming on at work and things just "click"...or hearing RFTD cut in during Dayvan Cowboy - my mind almost exploded during that broadcast! - I think I would have done better listening to this album if I hadn't even heard RFTD, or anything else for that matter, but I don't regret getting caught up in the hype, it was WAY too much fun!

I'm certainly not underwhelmed by this release, I'm just "differentlywhelmed" .

Already though, the more I listen the more I like it (as I've only listened to it for the first time last night).

Like Come to Dust, it was OK last night, now I find myself wanting to play it again, no matter what I'm listening to. Palace Posy hit me in the face like a tonne of bricks - I purposely didn't read much/anything about the specific tracks, so it was a huge surprise to hear the thumping start. I had a grin on my face for pretty much the whole song thinking to myself "what the HELL is this?" Even my wife looked at me and was like "huh? which song is THIS??", heh!

I was pretty happy to hear Semena Mertvykh, I was tipped off which song it was, and oddly enough when I first heard that song, I was like SKIPPPPP (during the great code rush of '13) but I found myself playing that video over and over again because I liked the sound.

Telepath was freaky, as my record player went wonky during the counting and it made it even more creepy. All in all I enjoyed the album, enjoyed the way I first heard it and I know it will grow on me more and more.

Hopefully everyone else will "get there" in their own ways!

PS. I was hoping, but always knew it wasn't going to happen, that Split Your Infinites would sound somewhat like Audiotrack 08 (as I've known it to be Infinite Lines of Colourful Sevens). SPOILERS - it doesn't, lol!

[d e n]

I'll satisfy my hunger with other releases like the new Daft Punk.

like drawing blood from a stone trying to get anything out of that mess of an album

lol! As I will state as I have before. I think this their best release ever.

nah! he was talking about that trite Daft Punk album!

[seanandcandy]

like drawing blood from a stone trying to get anything out of that mess of an album

lol! As I will state as I have before. I think this their best release ever.

nah! he was talking about that trite Daft Punk album!

^yes

i love tomorrow's harvest, i'm not in the business of ranking their albums but its definitely found its little niche in my listening rituals

people need to stop talking about random access memories and start talking about Half of Where You Live, now that's an LP worth visiting

[re-phaelam-ed]

the harvest was good this year!

[RVeldhuis]

The album just need to grow on you. When the album livestream took place I found myself not 'enjoying' the songs per say, but I knew/heard that the songs were complex and it was something that I could get into. Now a few weeks later, I'm in love with the album. RFTD initially didn't really appeal to me, I found it a good song, but not great. Just 10 minutes ago I listened to it with headphones on at work. I was amazed, just now I heard how they made the song, and how complex it is.

Sometimes you just hear more music than other times, you hear every single bit they put into their music. And I know that now, I'll be in love with that track too. It just takes time to listen to. Almost every song of BoC didn't grab my interest at first. It sort of just 'hits' you after you listened to it a few times.

Atleast thats what happens for me.

[purgruv]

I think that this album and the sounds and atmosphere remind me of some of Principles of Geometry's tracks, who were in turn influenced by BoC, of course. But there is such a break in styles, in my view, that the comparison needed to be made.

[Echelon]

Having missed the hype train for this album, (I truly came on board with BOC in 2015-2016, though I knew about them as early as 2008) I really have to agree with the title. In 2019, I can never shake that this is the weakest product they've ever made.I think the way this album starts is the perfect example of why the music is underwhelming. Gemini sounds more like a slow moving introduction to Reach For The Dead (think its Wildlife Analysis) but then when we reach Reach For The Dead, there's another slow moving introduction to the real meat of the track. It normally takes 3 minutes for me to get properly invested in Reach.

And while they nail the genre exercise they were attempting to do, I really think its sad how they replaced those one-of-a-kind synth lines from the classic era with "All the world is devastation" synth lines. I know there are a lot of Boards imitators who use those detuned synths, but I personally feel there are a lot more musicians who attempted to create electronic "post apocalyptic" music throughout the years. It's a well mined territory honestly and as much as I love Boards. I don't know what they've brought to that table that others haven't already.

That said, I can't fully be negative about this album either. I enjoy the second half of Reach For The Dead, Cold Earth, Sick Times, Causeway (sometimes, other times I want it to be over,) Palace Posy, Nothing is Real, New Seeds and Come To Dust. Though I will admit that half the reason I like stuff like Cold Earth and Nothing Is Real is because they remind me of the good old days for BOC, while I'll admit they actually nail the genre exercise of Come To Dust with perfection. I really feel like this is the climax of BOC's fictional movie when Come To Dust comes on.

Overall, I'd give the album a C+ (or a B- on good days when I'm really feeling the dark, wintery mood) and I hope for a total 180 with the next album. I also hope I don't offend anyone with my opinion. Trust me, BOC are my second favorite band of all time and I want nothing more than for them to succeed.

And I still regret immensely missing the hype. I hope there's a whole lot of fun to be had when the next album comes out. Maybe not an ARG but just the fanbase coming together and being happy and excited for a new release. I long for those days.

[arvy]

People who usually give negative reviews to Tomorrow's Harvest speaking in this complicated language about the music melodies and how BOC was much better in other albums than this before. Honestly and really I don't have a clue how melody works and never played any musical instrument in my lifetime. But what I like about Tomorrow's Harvest is that BOC transformed their ideas into the music album and that you actually could read a story from it. And honestly, when the album was announced and later released, I never saw or heard anything like this before.

[Echelon]

People who usually give negative reviews to Tomorrow's Harvest speaking in this complicated language about the music melodies and how BOC was much better in other albums than this before. Honestly and really I don't have a clue how melody works and never played any musical instrument in my lifetime. But what I like about Tomorrow's Harvest is that BOC transformed their ideas into the music album and that you actually could read a story from it. And honestly, when the album was announced and later released, I never saw or heard anything like this before.

I forgot to mention that I do like the story aspect of Tomorrow's Harvest. It does fit together nicely. But to put it more simply, I don't know. I find it hard to get through sometimes. I won't deny that some tracks have melodies I like too.

Again, I know I'm probably setting myself up for flames by writing this lengthy essay deconstructing what I don't like about TH, but I mean nothing by it other than to state my opinion. Honestly, I feel the same when people slag off The Campfire Headphase which I really like.

I feel Post-Geogaddi is usually a tense time for BOC fans with the advent of the band's dark horse being either TCH or TH. Funny because they seem like the inverse of each other.

[drillkicker]

I've never understood the hate for Jacquard Causeway. I've always thought it's the strongest track on the album.

That said, I never listen to Tomorrow's Harvest anymore simply because of the lyrics to Nothing Is Real. Really, sometimes the most talented musicians can be the dumbest people.

[Echelon]

I've never understood the hate for Jacquard Causeway. I've always thought it's the strongest track on the album.

That said, I never listen to Tomorrow's Harvest anymore simply because of the lyrics to Nothing Is Real. Really, sometimes the most talented musicians can be the dumbest people.

It's that weird metal drum sound that gets used over and over. It starts grating on me after awhile. I do like what's going on with the synths and I'm actually reminded of a similar musical passage on Soft Machine's Third where two recordings of a flute are echoing each other. I say nix that drum sound and you've got a great track.

And what's stupid about the lyrics? They just sound like a typical atheist rant to me. I suppose they lack the fun of the supposed paganism and devil worship of Geogaddi.

[Echelon]

Even though, rereading the Nothing Is Real lyrics and thinking about them saying this" is about the inevitable stage that lies ahead of us" got me thinking. What if TH is actually about impending death, and after death (namely on the track Collapse) we get to see what the afterlife is like. Rather than Christianity, the true religions in this weird purgatorial afterlife are paganist ones (Palace Posy). We also can finally experience the concept of infinite as something more solid (Split Your Infinities). In this afterlife there are three outcomes, vast nothingness, (Nothing is Real) regeneration/rebirth (New Seeds) and gradual decay. (Come To Dust). In the end, however, everything is absolutely futile. (Semena).

Seriously, as much as I bashed TH earlier, I'd never deny there isn't multiple ways to interpret it. Maybe to BOC, a post apocalyptic soundtrack is their way of meditating on life and death since their lives are halfway over.

[PresidentSquidward]

Campfire Headphase is still my least favorite release, but that one is still good though

Also imo Jacquard Causeway and Nothing is Real are some of the albums best tracks, same with Palace Posy.