I recently acquired a copy of The Rising Tide, and let me say that it is absolutely beautifull. I can say right now that there's gonna be lots of closed minded sdre fans who will be really pissed off. Oh well, sucks for them. Everyone who has a true appreciation for the band's music as opposed to a blind allegiance to a particular musical style will absolutely adore this release. If you don't like it at first, listen to it a few more times. It actually took me about 3 listens to get into it, but once you understand the album it just keeps growing on you. Here's the lowdown:
Will's drums build into the intro track "Killed by an Angel". It explodes with thick guitar parts being accented perfectly by intense cracks of the snare drum. The verse and chorus vocal melody of the song is kind of more on the eerie tip than pretty or emotional. Particularly the verse. It goes into a bridge that changes the vibe of the song for a while, only to drop back into it's darkness once again. It ends (like many songs on this album) with the final note ringing out w/ feedback, kind of like the way "sometimes" ends.
The next song "one" picks up the beat to the album. Lots of you have probablly already heard this song. I think it's great. Lots of interesting musical movements, and a great vibe.
"Rain Song" is a bittersweet acoustic/orchestral song that contrasts the happiness of the verse with a flowing transition into a more emotional melody in the chorus. Very pretty acoustic guitars and a great piano part comes in at the end and fades out with the rest of the song.
"Disappear" starts out with a drum part that's very similar to the section of "the prohpet" where jeremy sings "will you carry me accross the sea". He's doing rolls on the floor tom with a constant bass drum beat. A guitar comes in that sounds almost exactly like Dan's guitar in "pillars". But then the similarities stop. It is reminiscant of early U2 stuff, Joshua tree era. It is dark and eerie, with a driving beat and soaring vocals like only jeremy can do. Complex melodies, parts, and changes.
"Disappear" ends and goes right into track 5, "Snibe", which starts with a slightly distorted bass line thumping out quarter notes that's quickly joined with a driving beat from william and a dark guitar part. The song builds up to the chorus which sounds like some kind of insane war chant. The song is powerfull, but not in the typical sunny day sense, it's weird. This one will be great at shows. It has a bridge with a piano and what sounds like jeremy whispering something through a vocoder. It sounds really cool.
Track 6 is the ocean, you've all heard that. But it does make alot more sense in the context with all these other songs. And is a little different.
Track 7 is one of my favorites on the album. "Fool in the Photograph" has a dark, indian/eastern sounding melody. It reminds me alot of some beatles stuff, particularly the melody for "Within you Without you" of sgt. peppers if your familiar. It bursts into a loud chorus, and flows back into the main part. The bridge of this song is one of the high points of the album, very emotional and beautiful. It ends with mellow strumming of the guitar and humming from jeremy.
"Tearing in my Heart" opens with a sample of some little kids talking. Then it goes into the mellow, beatiful main part. Will is playing with some brushes it sounds like, and jeremy's vocals are soft, quiet, and high. Plucking guitars. There are some strings in this one too. The song ends slowly and quietly.
"Television" is my pick for THE song that all the dumb asses will hate the most. It'll be this album's "two promises" or "100 million". It opens with some electronic synthesizer droning and computer sound bleeps and bloops. Then it kicks in with this bouncy, happy go lucky sounding melody. It grows into a driving part in the middle with jeremy sonically wailing. Near the end everything drops out and there is a great sounding piano solo section, jeremy's voice fades in and then the rest of the band comes back in all at once. It ends the same way I talked about before w/ "killed by an angel". Lots of people are gonna dislike this song, I can tell. They'll say it's too damn happy. I like it, though.
"Faces in Disguise" is another one of my favorites on the album. It is very gentle with a synthesizer progression and some wattery effects on the guitar. Jeremy sings very soft, like the way he sings "days were golden" live. The second time they get to the part where jeremy sings "faces in disguise" it gets more intense, and then they blast into a loud part with jeremy singing high along with some strings. Then they go through the whole progression again. Growing more intense towards that loud part. You can't really label the parts of this song (and lots of the songs on this album) with just verse, chorus, bridge, etc. So it's kind of hard to explain them. This one has another great fade-out.
the closing song "The Rising Tide" is thick, lucious, and dreamy. This is a VERY well written song, with lots of different parts and melodies that all flow together beautifully. That's the way lots of these songs are structured. Complex and flowing. Near the end the song busts into an interesting groove with william playing triplets on the high hat, then it flows into the main slow and heavy groove, then it flows back to the main melodies. The songs just flow like that. "The Rising Tide" ends with some typical jeremy vocal stylings (like he would do live at the end of days were golden) then it goes into this ambient synthesizer stuff with some hypnotic filters and delay. Then it just goes away and the album is over.
Overall I am very impressed. I mean, wow. Never before has diary seemed so much like sdre's *first* album. Don't get me wrong, I love all those songs to death, but this stuff is really just way more advanced. In another league of musicianship. A much darker album than How it Feels, which is probablly why there was so much talk about it having a feel similar to diary. I think seeing this stuff live will bring it to an entirely new level, too. So I'm really excited for that. Well, I hoped this helped to quench the thirst of those of you who haven't heard it yet.
-matt C.