gusterGuster's best album was 1999's Lost and Gone Forever, but this is a 00's thread, so I'll stick to their work from that decade. Notably, my second favorite album was Parachute, which nobody really likes, but that came out all the way back in '95, so that's really out of bounds.
Dlew. So much to publicly talk about RE guster. I love
Lost and Gone Forever (referred to from here on out as LAGF) a lot. It's my second favorite gooster album and is super duper good. But
Keep It Together is definitely the best, IMO. ALTHOUGH(!!!) the best Guster song is "Ruby Falls," which definitely falls into the 00's category. A few things about LAGF.
Lost and Gone Forever--One morning in 2006 I was by myself exploring Corvallis, OR. for the first time and I was trying to figure out what to listen to on my walk toward OSU's campus. It was a rainy, gray day in Oregon with green foliage all around. What You Wish For was perfectly appropriate. Dlew if you had been there I would've used my splitter and given you my second pair of headphones because we are IRL buds.
--How great is that cover art? Kid throwing a rock onto the wreckage of a busted-ass piano. Pretty great. The first time I saw it, it made me think of a similar scene from Pink Floyd's
The Wall movie. But that's for another thread!
--"What You Wish For" is a great opening track to this album. Dlew! Quiz! What does this song have in common with your favorite Guster song?
--"All The Way Up To Heaven" has a bit of French in the lyrics. Some cool changes in tonal center too.
--"Happier" is so great. SO great. The way Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner share vocals perfectly kind of reminds me of a track team passing a baton back and forth in a relay race. And the version of this from Guster On Ice? So good.
--"Rainy Day." Great closer to the album. Very climactic and rough. Never got its due in the pantheon of GGS (great Guster songs) in my opinion, at least not that many people talk about it and it rarely gets played live. But I heard them play it a year or two ago on their tour with the string quartet (which they also released on their string quartet live album) and it was magical. Magical!
--LAGF DLEW DID YOU KNOW! DID YOU KNOW....that Phish keyboardist Page McConnell played the
on "All The Way Up To Heaven"?
Keep It Together (2003): Probably my third favorite album. It's a long album and is packed with dynamite songs. "Diane" is great. "Careful" is probably a top 5 Guster track for me. "Amsterdam" might be Guster's most well known song. It rocks, but it lacks some of the depth of some of their other songs for me. Homecoming King is pretty good and definitely appealed to angsty high-schooler Dlew. "Jesus on the Radio" is a popular song among Guster fans, but never really did much for me. "Keep it Together" (the song) is fine, not my favorite. High School Girlfriend loved it though. "Come Downstairs and Say Hello" is the best Guster song I've ever heard. The part where it goes "Be calm. Be brave. It'll be okay," where it picks up is incredible. Gives me chills every time I hear it.
Gonna just break up your quote right here so it's a little more bite-sized to respond to.
--I love "Diane". Notice the way he pronounces the p sound at the end of the word "sleep." Really pops it into the microphone. I always loved that.
We lie together and we say it's love...who were you just thinking of, Diane??? Oh man. Great song.
--"Careful" was never one of my favorites, for some reason. A little poppier than I like, I guess. Love the "all you want to seeeee" bridge, though. The drums slow down briefly to half speed from what they are the rest of the song, which is a great rock and roll move that is underutilized.
--"Homecoming King" is very great, too. DLEW QUIZ TIME! The lyrics of "Hc K", in SB's mind, tie somewhat into the lyrics of a song from the next Guster album. What song and why?? Dlew lyrical analysis time.
--I really love "Ramona." Another song that didn't get its just due, imo. You're Miss Oklahoma and you miss Oklahoma? Great stuff.
--Don't know why you dislike "Keep It Together." One of my favorites on the album. It's about a shipwreck! How many rock songs are about a shipwreck? Not many. A true original. Also I once saw them play it live on top of a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean when a crazy storm was rolling in, it was very surreal. They totally strayed from their setlist to play it at that exact time because they'd always dreamt of doing it. Was awesome. Another great bridge in this one.
--"CDASH": Agree with everything you said about this one. SB especially loves it because of the Dark Side of Oz connection, which basement-dwelling SB was really into in high school.
--"Red Oyster Cult" is a great one to rock out to. Some really great 2 vs. 3 rhythmic action during the "if you wanna be free take a sip of this tea" choruses. Some great whistling action during one of the verses. (Interesting, calm contrast to the rest of the rock out sections of the song.)
--"Long Way Down" has always been my least favorite on the album. Just seems a little bland by comparison.
--"I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today," is a sweet little diddy. I think it may have been featured on the OST for Wedding Crashers? But I think some one else sang it for the movie? Anyhow, it's good.
I haven't seen Wedding Crashers forever, but I'm pretty sure it was the album version. The other singer you're hearing in the first verse is Ben Kweller, another awesome 00's guy who Guster toured with a decent amount.
"Two at a Time" a song about Noah's Ark? Yep. That's another I didn't appreciate until I was older. All in all, KIT was a great album.
Love how the bridge on this one slides the tonic down a half step out of nowhere, and then sorta slides up until it returns to the original key via a very triumphant sounding V7/V--->V7--->I. So hott!!
I suspect this is the Joe Pisapia influence, although LAGF proved they could do some hott key changes before he came into the picture.
Ganging Up On The Sun (2006)I was very excited for this one. I bought it when I was on vacation with my family. Pretty much listened to this album exclusively during my time at the top of the forensics circuit (dramatic interpretation...2nd in the state). This album was a little more political than the others, which I wasn't wild about, but hey, new Guster music is new Guster music. Let's get to the songs though.
Gotta go binge so I won't spend a ton of time on this one. But yep. Definitely the most political.
--"Lightning Rod" is a great song but pretty disturbing.
--"Satellite" is pretty good but probably not as good as they think it is? They play it all the time and it's fun to sing along to but in my opinion it's not in their top 15 or 20 best songs.
--"Manifest Destiny." I think the reason you're hearing piano now is probably Joe Pisapia's influence here as well. Pretty sure Ryan Miller didn't know piano (or at least very well) before this, though I might be wrong.
--"The Captain" is an unbelievable song and I love it so much for a number of reasons. The solo at the end where Joe Pisapia goes wild is so much rough ridin' fun. Onward!
--"The New Underground" is kind of like this album's "Red Oyster Cult" in my opinion. Rocks pretty hard and supes fun live but probably not my favorite for whatever reason (though make no mistake: SB does love to rock).
--"Ruby Falls" is my favorite Guster song ever, at least up until the jazz flugel horn part. I like the jazz flugel horn part, but I've always felt that this song deserved a humongous, violent/beautiful climax akin to what it rises to around the 4 minute mark with the dueling distorted slide guitars and three-part "AAAAH" vocal harmonies. I wish it had an ending akin to Only In Dreams, if that makes much sense. SB story time! Had this song on my headphones during my vision quest this summer and turned the corner right during the climactic part of the song to see a huge-ass waterfall in Glacier National Park. It was the crap and a total skin-crawl'y moment. I wish my IRL bud Dlew could've been there. Maybe we'll vision quest together this summer.
--"C'Mon" is an unworthy follow-up to "Ruby Falls." Just a real clunker, imo. The first time I heard it I thought to myself, "uhhh when did Bob Seger start writing songs for Guster?"
--"Dear Valentine" is extremely underrated. Steady throughout but I love it for some reason. Adam is great for singing alone for like one or two very underrated songs per album.
--"Hang On" Meh. Kinda feel like this song and its lyrics phone it in. But that's just me.
And this has been
DLEW AND SB TALK ABOUT GUSTER!!!
