New Album Name and Release Date!

[Firelight]

Currently obsessed with You Are The Light.

[blasko66]

This is the album I've been waiting for. Literally. So good.

[luciddream71]

Damn it I’m jealous

[Sippe]

Available on iTunes!!!

[luciddream71]

Omg!!!

[luciddream71]

I LOVE THIS ALBUM

[Sippe]

I'm really supposed to sleep so I thought I'd do an album review, song by song. Warning, will contain some negative opinions!

Please be aware that Ours are one of my all time favourite bands and my obsession with them/him was only really topped by my obsession by Muse back as a teenager. A lot of my criticism might seem harsh and very focused on production, but that's really just because I know how much I CAN love Ours, and how disappointed I get when an amazing song is brought down by bad production.

Kill Me:
I've wanted a proper recording of this song for years and years now. Sadly, Jimmy never really manages to capture his voice as well as even the lowest quality bootleg. Some of the richness that his chest voice has, especially in the belting area, is just lost. This might also be a result of the master of this record which lets through way too many high frequencies and just offers way too little middle and low-end. When that first chorus kicks in it's just...painful. Quality song which is let down by the production, sadly. Still a classic Ours song that I've listened to countless times.

You Are The Light:
This song suffers from the same thing as many new songs by Jimmy, it seems. It just feels a bit...aimless? Might be some sort of artistic choice that I just don't get. Not bad but not very good either. Goes in the pile of "won't really listen to again" along with songs like Pretty Pain, Get 'Em Out and Willing.

Pain Aside:
Now this is cool. Lovely chorus! Has a bit of a similar groove to Been Down which was one of my favourite songs from BTB. Love the fact that Jimmy is writing songs that I can actually bop my head to. The last minute of the song has so much impact.

My Love:
I definitely think this is a grower. It's nice, but also a bit underwhelming on first listen, which for me is a good thing. As long as I can hear something that I don't quite "get" on first listen, it's a good chance that it'll become one of my absolute favourites eventually. The same thing happened with Fall Into My Hands which is probably in my top5 Ours songs these days.
But I guess there's also a chance it will just stay a bit underwhelming...lol.

New Age Heroine:
I had of course heard the partial acoustic live version, but goddamn I did not expect this at all! Such groove! Such development throughout the song. After the first two minutes of the song, the "you're an angel far from home, in a place you've never known" part just brings the song to a whole new level. And while the drumming is a pretty big problem for me on this album (just like on BTB), Jimmy's drumming serves this song perfectly! Despite its length I honestly feel like this could be a single. If it gets uploaded on youtube it will definitely be the song I send to people to introduce them to Ours.

Fallen Flower:
A bit surprised that this was basically just piano and strings. Lovely song though, with very typical "Ours"-melodies. Would probably have enjoyed it more if I hadn't heard the live version so many times. Will probably stay in my playlist rotation for a good while.

Fly: I didn't get this song at all on first listen. But just a handful of more playthroughs and this is definitely a standout track. The falsetto melody is haunting. The bassline is...probably one of the best in Ours' discography, and the drums really take the song even further. It's repetitive, but exactly in the way that Jimmy has described in interviews as his goal, to basically hypnotize.

Miles Away: Definitely didn't like the acoustic version, but the added instrumentation really brings it to a new level. When the bass comes in just before the one minute mark basically everything changes. But hey guys, who should warn Jimmy that he'll be accused of ripping off Radiohead again? (hint: Let Down).

Made To Love: Powerful and impressive, but somehow it still leaves me feeling a bit underwhelmed and I don't really know why. Might be because I feel like something is missing and that it ends a bit too quickly without the melody having been fully resolved in a satisfying manner. I'll just wait and hope that it will grow on me.

Ring The Bell: ...get back to me in a year and I'll see if I've come around to it.


In the end, I wish Jimmy could at least get a drummer for the recordings. Feels like there should be SOMEONE out there who can get along with Jimmy's vision and add to it. As it is, some songs are really held back because he is forced to do it all himself. The songs don't need flashy, speedy drumming, but it should also feel like a natural part of the song, which is something that comes with experience as a drummer.

All in all, some really good songs and some I don't really care for, just like every Ours album that came after Distorted Lullabies. The production is a lot better than Ballet The Boxer was at release, but you can still tell that it's been produced by someone who doesn't really have the experience needed for a project like this. Thankfully since Jimmy owns all the rights he can redo the master in 10 years if he wants to. I'm hopeful for future releases since Jimmy is at least getting noticeably better at doing it all himself.

[luciddream71]

Sippe, totally agree with you that even some of the lesser esteemed songs would benefit greatly with more polished production-both distorted lullabies and mercy had great production, even precious coming in third IMO. But going independent limits you financially, I guess -and even if it's not a financial thing, and more a preference on Jimmy's part-it's up to him. But I get where you're coming from.

What I'd still love to officially see on an album:

Autumn-I know there was some sort of recording of it, I have it, but THAT song especially requires the best production value as it's intense and epic.

Shoot the one in the middle- I think the same can be said as previously stated

The song I assume is called "forever" (you can find it on youtube) which is by far my favorite unreleased song

Parasites- is a must

The song "Whore" - written about himself I recall him saying on one of the live recordings of it.

And so many more as we all know...I'd buy them all.

[Sippe]

In this case it wasn't even Jimmy's choice to produce himself. The guy who was set to mix passed away of cancer, so I totally get why someone like Jimmy, who certainly doesn't get much funding for his music, had to do it himself. I'm just sad because it makes the songs less than they could have been.

Can you link Forever? Maybe it was you who mentioned it on his instagram earlier, but I can't say I remember how it sounds at all.

I did ask him about Parasites the other day however, and he said it was coming! The new version of the song is absolutely amazing. Personally my top 3 wishes are probably Parasites, Brace Yourself (which he hasn't recorded yet sadly) and Gonna Love You.

[SoundscapeMN]

Producing =/= Mixing.

From what I recall, Jason Corsaro was just going to MIX Spectacular Sight (and likely what became New Age Heroine).

I agree about Fly being the standout, but I don't feel as critical about this album I guess.

I mean after BTB and even The Heart to a point, I kind of have slightly lowered the bar. It seems Jimmy's albums often have a few tracks I either have to grow to like or are stripped down ballads that many fans enjoy, but I tend to not latch onto as much.

I do find both My Love and Made to Love both are rather strong and moving.
On the other hand Fallen Flower and Miles Away I'm struggling with.

Ring the Bell is not bad, but just by comparison to every other Ours album, I don't think it measures up to other closing tracks.

The mentioned live and unreleased tunes?..I haven't heard many of those in years, but should revisit like Shoot the One in the Middle, Whore and Parasites I recall.

Autumn definitely should come out, and given it was recorded, someone should ask Jimmy about it. Maybe it's destined for that untitled album coming next year?

Forever sounds awfully familiar, like maybe from 1 of the streams, and I remember enjoying it.

Living in a Video
Hurt like a Tattoo

what did I see on Instagram when he went to record, he had to choose 25 or 30 songs among 200? if he had all the time in the world, or were like Prince, I'm sure all of those tunes would come out, but as largely a 1-man-ed ship, I can't expect a lot of this stuff to happen on every new album. But hopefully a lot of it will in due time.

[SoundscapeMN]

Also Preorders for the CD and Vinyl

http://www.ours.net/store/product-catego...c/vinylcd/

CD quantities are limited, which makes me wish I had preordered more than 1 copy.

[Sippe]

I’m well aware that producing and mixing aren’t the same thing, which was why I talked about producing when I was speaking about the entire album process from song choices, stylistic directions, recording, mixing, mastering etc, and why I specified mixing when I mentioned Jason.

Autumn has been released btw. Can’t tell if you meant that it hadn’t but I figured I’d tell you in case you weren’t aware because the full band recording is great, even though the audio rip that I have is of pretty low quality

[luciddream71]

I’m well aware that producing and mixing aren’t the same thing, which was why I talked about producing when I was speaking about the entire album process from song choices, stylistic directions, recording, mixing, mastering etc, and why I specified mixing when I mentioned Jason.

Autumn has been released btw. Can’t tell if you meant that it hadn’t but I figured I’d tell you in case you weren’t aware because the full band recording is great, even though the audio rip that I have is of pretty low quality

I have a recorded version of Autumn but it doesn’t sound good at all: would be nice to hear a full production of it and on an album.

As far as forever, go on to YouTube and type in jimmy gnecco unreleased, there should be two songs from his show at the living room that come up. One is a sour era song and the other is the “forever” song I’m referring to.

There was also a song from south by south west he played that would be great as a recording (I think that’s gonna loveyou that you’re referring), as well as the ones you mentioned (I’d forgotten about brace yourself).

[Sippe]

https://picosong.com/wXMx2/ is this the version of Autumn that you have?

Turns out I had that performance "Forever" in my Jimmy Gnecco folder already! Btw the Sour era song is Kill Me.

And yeah this is Gonna Love You
The title comes from a video Jimmy himself uploaded where he was playing a piano version:

I really hope he manages to record a version with the belting from the SXSW version. Honestly one of my favourite songs he's ever written.

EDIT: Just realised I had a version of Autumn in 320kbps. Definitely wouldn't call it bad: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TQ-TeKy...sp=sharing

[luciddream71]

https://picosong.com/wXMx2/ is this the version of Autumn that you have?

Turns out I had that performance "Forever" in my Jimmy Gnecco folder already! Btw the Sour era song is Kill Me.

And yeah this is Gonna Love You
The title comes from a video Jimmy himself uploaded where he was playing a piano version:

I really hope he manages to record a version with the belting from the SXSW version. Honestly one of my favourite songs he's ever written.

EDIT: Just realised I had a version of Autumn in 320kbps. Definitely wouldn't call it bad: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TQ-TeKy...sp=sharing

The belting in Gonna Love You is by far up there as one of the bests, along with the version of Shoot the one in the middle he played in England:

[Nine]

I've given up on this band.
The production is awful, Kill Me is a mess from the start with Jimmy's vocal being too hot (on basically every song) to the music just being lost in the mix when everything kicks in. These are just amateur mistakes.
I had the same issue with Ballet The Boxer. Jimmy should not be producing and mixing his own music, and if he has someone assisting him, then that person does not have in idea how to make a professional recording. This album sounds like a demo.
I honestly couldn't even get into most of the songs on the it either due to poor production or maybe it's just lazy songwriting.
I like the word 'aimless' described above because it's so fitting, these songs just hang out for a while in the verses and there is never a solid pay off, they just meander along until they just dissipate into nothing.

This is also what makes these long waits between records a brutal test of patience as a fan because it's not like he's perfecting superior sound quality, this could have been released a year ago, it would not have sounded any different.
It's just disappointing.

[blasko66]

Well, the production isn't up to Distorted Lullabies or Mercy (my favorite Ours records) but this is the direction he's been hinting at and I am along for the ride. I don't know if this new direction is where he's more comfortable, sonically, or why the choice has been made.

[Firelight]

I'm not going anywhere.

[eveofabyss]

Not a chance. I'm HEAVILY in love with this album. It may have taken a rough road to get here, but the band is doing right by me. The urgency and weight in what he's doing, in his lyricism and delivery, are all driving the album home for me. It's precisely what I've needed, and at the best time for it.

[luciddream71]

Oh and we need a good recording of Use Me, thanks lol