Smaltz, brave faces everyone and no joy have helped me get through my 5 year old nephews death to cancer. I adore spanish love songs. They even smash there covers out the park. Especially funeral.
"stay alive out of spite" reminds me of "it's not about forcing happiness, it's about not letting sadness win" from The Wonder Years' Suburbia. two of my favorite bands.
I just got out of a bad, bad bipolar spell and yeah this album hit hard, harder than brave faces for me. When you're in that manic hurricane, you do not know what damage you're doing, when you're in that depressed hurricane, you do not know what damage you are doing. I've hurt a lot of people along my journey and regret a lot of things in my 27 years of life. And yeah this hits home. I love this album more than brave faces
I'm from the UK and it still feels like they're slept on and consistently underrated here, too. I have a Deaf Havana tattoo, and people are always surprised to learn that I've decided to dedicate a portion of my skin for *that* band that no one has heard of since 'Friends Like These'. They should be bigger!
The moment I saw the album release I was eager to hear your take on it. It's definitely not as good as Brave Faces Everyone, but the fact that it's still a top AOTY contender for me really goes to show how talented SLS are!
there’s not a lot of albums that can even get close to how I feel for Brace Faces Everyone, that album got me through the pandemic and I love it so much for that🙏
Schmaltz is my favorite album, and it's obviously very different from their latest release, so I couldn't really get behind No Joy. Too slow and poppy for me, but I can see why others like it.
My hot take: I prefer this to Brave Faces Everyone, and I acknowledge that it’s because this is more personal. I’ve been here, I’ve fought these battles, and I’m also an optimist at heart. This record struck a chord with me that I haven’t felt in a long while. Just a fucking phenomenal project
I'll listen to this and Brave Faces Everyone (and their first album as well), watching these reviews has led me to discover some great artists that I never heard from before, I'm in a process of expanding my music listening to be as abroad and rich as I can. Great review, I'll be coming back to this comment once I listen the albums to give an opinion
This is my first time viewing your channel (I think!!) and I think you hit everything that’s important about No Joy! It’s NOT BFE and like you said, off rip, that’s going to lose them some “points.” But in my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful storytelling albums of the year. I’m an AVID SLS fan to the point where idk if they could ever put out something I’d consider “bad” but when they first started dropping singles, I’ll admit it took me a minute to wrap my head around the new sound. Hearing the album as one piece and not 12 singles helped put everything together in a cohesive way that I’ve been obsessed with since it dropped. Great review- looks like we have similar taste in things so I’ll have to check some others out!!
Even if this album doesn’t quite hit the perfect heights of Brave Faces Everyone, It still puts up a strong fight nonetheless to survive as their second best album to date.
I'm not as big a fan of this as compared the Brave Faces Everyone (my maybe favourite ever album) or Schmaltz, but it's still a good album. I wish it was heavier, I wish it had more punch to it, but whatever. Dylan's vocals are still insane, and he still paints a fantastic story really well
Phenomenal review man, hit it right on the head. Honestly just as impactful as BFE, only in a different way. I wasn't sure about the genre switch either, but they more than pulled it off. Also, I second the Sister Cities love! Super unpopular opinion, but its gotta be my favorite TWY.
Appreciate this review. Bfe is one of my favourite albums of all time and I really like this album too because of the more positive sound and content. It's not trying to be BFE and that's great! BTW, the synth on Haunted really reminds me of "To live and die in LA" is it just me??
I just listened to brave faces everyone yesterday when i was procrastinating on doing my economics homework, and while it's an album i really admire, i'm not sure i truly 'like' it. it's an excellent album, but it's one that i can understand the acclaim rather than truly enjoy it. part of my issue was the vocal mixing, because the singer has so much force, but when he's buried down in the mix a bit it doesn't have as much punch as it would for me if he was further up. I will be listening to this album, probably sometime this week. edit: well i listened to it and goddamn it this one hit hard for me. maybe it's just me being a minor and still in high school but while the themes of brave faces everyone hit me hard, that album is exhausting for me to get through. No joy has the themes of mental health struggles that truly resonate with me, and the brighter guitar tones to really push it into my brain. its most certainly one of my favorite albums of the year. (my favorites are marvel, haunted, and exit bags)
I thought you had given a review for schmaltz near when it came out but I can't find it. I would like to go and revisit that review if possible because I love all 3 of these albums in a row for different reasons. Also giving that relativity between The Wonder Years, Deaf Havana and Spanish Love Songs albums was just the cherry on top as I've been looking forward to your thoughts since this album was announced.
For my money, this is at least as good as Schamltz, and almost as good as Brave Faces Everyone. Brave Faces Everyone quickly wormed it's way into being my absolute favorite record of all time, and I feel like this one will join my top 10 in the same way. I love almost everything about this project, and even though I do miss some of the punchier parts of their pop-punk sound, this album comes through with enough lyrical weight, and punch. I'm really happy that the new musical direction, still allows Dylan's lyrics to really shine through. I think your comparisons to Sister Cities, and Panorama are super apt here. Awesome review dude!
Hilarious that you bring up the drums on the Paramore album. Look at the names of the assistant engineers of the Paramore album. You might recognize one of them, and he told me that "they barely even touched my mike placements on the drums" when I saw them earlier this year, which is so hilarious in light of your comparison. But Kyle's a hell of an engineer and producer, still. He and Trevor did a great job on the last album.
Brave Faces Everyone is one of my all time favourites. Like many have said before, that was my lockdown album, and an album that I related to heavily and still do. It's not an album that I come back to often, but one that I always make sure to do so every now and then (more because of the bleak nature of the album being a bit too heavy at certain points). I love 'No Joy', I think it's one of my favourite albums of the year, and 'Clean-Up Crew' is my favourite song so far this year. Is the album as good as 'BFE', no? But it's still an incredible listen. I heard it three times in a day and found myself in awe at large chunks of it. Parts get lost near the middle section, but when this album hits with the aforementioned song, 'Haunted', 'Pendulum', 'Signs of the Apolocalypse' its absolute perfection. I'm not disappointed at all, quite the opposite, it's an excellent follow up. Just for personal reasons 'Brave Faces Everyone' is a tough one to match.
I'm one of the people that missed Brave Faces Everyone when it came out and haven't take the time to go back and listen to it or any other Spanish Love Songs albums but holy hell this album rules. This is the album I've been looking for to break through all the black metal at the top of my favorites of the year list, though still not my top favorite of the year. Also, this year has been pretty damn good for emo with this record, Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes, Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly, Swiss Army Wife and the upcoming Koyo and Citizen albums.
I'm one of the few who actually thinks this is superior to _Brave Faces Everyone_ because it has intstrumentation which actually impressed me (though me being an easy mark for indie rock does leave me biased in that regard). Though I do get why to some, it won't hit AS hard since it's less universal and more personal in its content; it won't resonate to as many folks on a personal level. Either way, it's still another massive triumph and might actually be my AOTY since it's pretty much everything I hoped Spanish Love Songs would make after _Brave Faces Everyone_ . They STILL know how to tug at your heart and are still MASTERFUL at constructing their projects, especially with their closers.
I think I enjoy the atmosphere of this album more than Brave Faces Everyone. While that album had strong choruses and performances on every single song, it often felt like I was listening to the same song. No Joy has more variety and I'm loving the new approach the band is taking.
It’s definitely not as good as BFE, and I’d also honestly that it’s not even as good as Schmaltz, but it’s definitely an amazing record that hits just as hard as you’d expect a Spanish Love Songs album to hit. Going into this album, I remember Dylan Slocum citing The Killers as a huge inspiration for how this album would turn out sound wise, even going as far as to cover one of their songs, and I can definitely hear that influence scattered all throughout the album. I do think there are some questionable synth and production choices here and there and I do with the guitars and synths popped off a little more, more often, but they’re just getting into this sound and I think with more work and more practice with this sound, there’s definitely a 10/10 album in there for them with this sound. But still, this album is absolutely a 9/10 for me and as of now it is my favorite album this year. I am hopeful that’ll change, but that’s where I’m at right now.
When are we gonna start talking about the fact Spanish love songs have been outshining modern baseball for years, and this album just further proves it
If I listened to this one blind, I would be really disappointed. a] the lady on the cover is not the lead singer b] the songs are not in Spanish c] they are emotionally raw depressing songs, not love songs at all, after all, loneliness is the opposite of love, and when you share loneliness with someone, you lose the chance to share love with them (though of course that is a different type of love)
Because of your channel, I discovered Brave Faces Everyone back when it came out. It became and remains one of my favorite albums of all time.
Smaltz, brave faces everyone and no joy have helped me get through my 5 year old nephews death to cancer. I adore spanish love songs. They even smash there covers out the park. Especially funeral.
"stay alive out of spite" reminds me of "it's not about forcing happiness, it's about not letting sadness win" from The Wonder Years' Suburbia. two of my favorite bands.
I just got out of a bad, bad bipolar spell and yeah this album hit hard, harder than brave faces for me. When you're in that manic hurricane, you do not know what damage you're doing, when you're in that depressed hurricane, you do not know what damage you are doing. I've hurt a lot of people along my journey and regret a lot of things in my 27 years of life. And yeah this hits home. I love this album more than brave faces
Oh boy
I wish you the best mate
Love the constant references to deaf havana in this review. They’re slept on, stateside, so it’s cool to hear someone else mention them.
I'm from the UK and it still feels like they're slept on and consistently underrated here, too. I have a Deaf Havana tattoo, and people are always surprised to learn that I've decided to dedicate a portion of my skin for *that* band that no one has heard of since 'Friends Like These'.
They should be bigger!
The moment I saw the album release I was eager to hear your take on it. It's definitely not as good as Brave Faces Everyone, but the fact that it's still a top AOTY contender for me really goes to show how talented SLS are!
there’s not a lot of albums that can even get close to how I feel for Brace Faces Everyone, that album got me through the pandemic and I love it so much for that🙏
Schmaltz is my favorite album, and it's obviously very different from their latest release, so I couldn't really get behind No Joy.
Too slow and poppy for me, but I can see why others like it.
My hot take: I prefer this to Brave Faces Everyone, and I acknowledge that it’s because this is more personal. I’ve been here, I’ve fought these battles, and I’m also an optimist at heart. This record struck a chord with me that I haven’t felt in a long while. Just a fucking phenomenal project
I'll listen to this and Brave Faces Everyone (and their first album as well), watching these reviews has led me to discover some great artists that I never heard from before, I'm in a process of expanding my music listening to be as abroad and rich as I can. Great review, I'll be coming back to this comment once I listen the albums to give an opinion
This is my first time viewing your channel (I think!!) and I think you hit everything that’s important about No Joy! It’s NOT BFE and like you said, off rip, that’s going to lose them some “points.” But in my opinion, it’s one of the most beautiful storytelling albums of the year. I’m an AVID SLS fan to the point where idk if they could ever put out something I’d consider “bad” but when they first started dropping singles, I’ll admit it took me a minute to wrap my head around the new sound. Hearing the album as one piece and not 12 singles helped put everything together in a cohesive way that I’ve been obsessed with since it dropped.
Great review- looks like we have similar taste in things so I’ll have to check some others out!!
Here You Are is battling I Remember Everything and Cool About It for my song of the year
Even if this album doesn’t quite hit the perfect heights of Brave Faces Everyone, It still puts up a strong fight nonetheless to survive as their second best album to date.
I'm not as big a fan of this as compared the Brave Faces Everyone (my maybe favourite ever album) or Schmaltz, but it's still a good album. I wish it was heavier, I wish it had more punch to it, but whatever. Dylan's vocals are still insane, and he still paints a fantastic story really well
love this album front to back its been a constant repeat for me personally
Great review! Really helps me connect more with a great album
Phenomenal review man, hit it right on the head. Honestly just as impactful as BFE, only in a different way. I wasn't sure about the genre switch either, but they more than pulled it off.
Also, I second the Sister Cities love! Super unpopular opinion, but its gotta be my favorite TWY.
Appreciate this review. Bfe is one of my favourite albums of all time and I really like this album too because of the more positive sound and content. It's not trying to be BFE and that's great! BTW, the synth on Haunted really reminds me of "To live and die in LA" is it just me??
I just listened to brave faces everyone yesterday when i was procrastinating on doing my economics homework, and while it's an album i really admire, i'm not sure i truly 'like' it. it's an excellent album, but it's one that i can understand the acclaim rather than truly enjoy it. part of my issue was the vocal mixing, because the singer has so much force, but when he's buried down in the mix a bit it doesn't have as much punch as it would for me if he was further up. I will be listening to this album, probably sometime this week.
edit: well i listened to it and goddamn it this one hit hard for me. maybe it's just me being a minor and still in high school but while the themes of brave faces everyone hit me hard, that album is exhausting for me to get through. No joy has the themes of mental health struggles that truly resonate with me, and the brighter guitar tones to really push it into my brain. its most certainly one of my favorite albums of the year. (my favorites are marvel, haunted, and exit bags)
I thought you had given a review for schmaltz near when it came out but I can't find it. I would like to go and revisit that review if possible because I love all 3 of these albums in a row for different reasons. Also giving that relativity between The Wonder Years, Deaf Havana and Spanish Love Songs albums was just the cherry on top as I've been looking forward to your thoughts since this album was announced.
Really great review. I’m really enjoying this album now, and I’m sure I’ll love it more with each listen.
For my money, this is at least as good as Schamltz, and almost as good as Brave Faces Everyone. Brave Faces Everyone quickly wormed it's way into being my absolute favorite record of all time, and I feel like this one will join my top 10 in the same way. I love almost everything about this project, and even though I do miss some of the punchier parts of their pop-punk sound, this album comes through with enough lyrical weight, and punch. I'm really happy that the new musical direction, still allows Dylan's lyrics to really shine through. I think your comparisons to Sister Cities, and Panorama are super apt here. Awesome review dude!
So glad to hear your thoughts on this one! Also very glad to hear this one’s still really good ❤
One of the rare times I agree with you. Definitely one of my top albums of the year
Hilarious that you bring up the drums on the Paramore album. Look at the names of the assistant engineers of the Paramore album. You might recognize one of them, and he told me that "they barely even touched my mike placements on the drums" when I saw them earlier this year, which is so hilarious in light of your comparison. But Kyle's a hell of an engineer and producer, still. He and Trevor did a great job on the last album.
Brave Faces Everyone is one of my all time favourites. Like many have said before, that was my lockdown album, and an album that I related to heavily and still do. It's not an album that I come back to often, but one that I always make sure to do so every now and then (more because of the bleak nature of the album being a bit too heavy at certain points).
I love 'No Joy', I think it's one of my favourite albums of the year, and 'Clean-Up Crew' is my favourite song so far this year. Is the album as good as 'BFE', no? But it's still an incredible listen. I heard it three times in a day and found myself in awe at large chunks of it. Parts get lost near the middle section, but when this album hits with the aforementioned song, 'Haunted', 'Pendulum', 'Signs of the Apolocalypse' its absolute perfection. I'm not disappointed at all, quite the opposite, it's an excellent follow up. Just for personal reasons 'Brave Faces Everyone' is a tough one to match.
I'm one of the people that missed Brave Faces Everyone when it came out and haven't take the time to go back and listen to it or any other Spanish Love Songs albums but holy hell this album rules. This is the album I've been looking for to break through all the black metal at the top of my favorites of the year list, though still not my top favorite of the year. Also, this year has been pretty damn good for emo with this record, Yes Yes A Thousand Times Yes, Guitar Fight from Fooly Cooly, Swiss Army Wife and the upcoming Koyo and Citizen albums.
I'm one of the few who actually thinks this is superior to _Brave Faces Everyone_ because it has intstrumentation which actually impressed me (though me being an easy mark for indie rock does leave me biased in that regard). Though I do get why to some, it won't hit AS hard since it's less universal and more personal in its content; it won't resonate to as many folks on a personal level.
Either way, it's still another massive triumph and might actually be my AOTY since it's pretty much everything I hoped Spanish Love Songs would make after _Brave Faces Everyone_ . They STILL know how to tug at your heart and are still MASTERFUL at constructing their projects, especially with their closers.
I like this, very well written
I think I enjoy the atmosphere of this album more than Brave Faces Everyone. While that album had strong choruses and performances on every single song, it often felt like I was listening to the same song. No Joy has more variety and I'm loving the new approach the band is taking.
Is this the album of the year or what?!
Mutable is completely underrated.
It’s definitely not as good as BFE, and I’d also honestly that it’s not even as good as Schmaltz, but it’s definitely an amazing record that hits just as hard as you’d expect a Spanish Love Songs album to hit. Going into this album, I remember Dylan Slocum citing The Killers as a huge inspiration for how this album would turn out sound wise, even going as far as to cover one of their songs, and I can definitely hear that influence scattered all throughout the album. I do think there are some questionable synth and production choices here and there and I do with the guitars and synths popped off a little more, more often, but they’re just getting into this sound and I think with more work and more practice with this sound, there’s definitely a 10/10 album in there for them with this sound. But still, this album is absolutely a 9/10 for me and as of now it is my favorite album this year. I am hopeful that’ll change, but that’s where I’m at right now.
...But where's our Zach Bryan album review???
Yeah it's absolutely not BFE, but still quite amazing
When are we gonna start talking about the fact Spanish love songs have been outshining modern baseball for years, and this album just further proves it
If I listened to this one blind, I would be really disappointed. a] the lady on the cover is not the lead singer b] the songs are not in Spanish c] they are emotionally raw depressing songs, not love songs at all, after all, loneliness is the opposite of love, and when you share loneliness with someone, you lose the chance to share love with them (though of course that is a different type of love)
"Maybe a big life isn't meant for us, settle down on a quiet street and hope we don't give in"