[quote]you know, i've heard this quote somewhere, but i don't remember its exact words
someone made an apple pie, right?
it's delicious
simple, right?
well, this renowned chef comes up, and points out that the sugar used in the pie was of a low quality brand
another food enthusiast comes up and refutes the chef saying that the sugar was not low quality, but in fact, a premium brand
a cook claims that the crust wasn't baked long enough, regardless if the pie is delicious
these people love food and is very dear to them
but they take a delicious pie and RUIN IT for everyone else by overcomplicating things
see my point?
some things are meant to be taken as they are
[/quote]

Oh, my expectations have been lowered almost to the ground. If anything it exceeded expectations a little bit with Primer Beat, though the rest of the album was several notches worse than the last few.

>Raid's apple pie post
Someone made an apple pie, right?
It tastes like ass, yo. Well, this rabid pillows fan comes up and points out the shitty crust, the rotten fruit, and the uncooked portions and tells the chef that he did a fabulous job, that this was a "totally kickass" apple pie, and that we are all ridiculous for comparing it to apple pies that actually tasted good.

I'm close to GR in position and opinion on the songs/album.

Primer Beat really is great though. I really hope they do more things in that vein. I'm a bit surprised I liked it as much as I did even with the distortion, but I think even the distorted bass was cool and worked somehow.

Well, it's kinda pointless to debate opinions, but at least I hope you guys understood what I was trying to say

Not rly

[quote="Raid"]a cook claims that the crust wasn't baked long enough, regardless if the pie is delicious[/quote]

My point in my huge-ass post was precisely that the last three pies [b]were not delicious[/b]. Both not as delicious as the pillows' previous pies, and also just not delicious PERIOD.

You're mistaken if you think I need to "lower my expectations." For what? What benefit do I get out of lowering my expectations for the luxury of music (or movies, tv shows, books, etc). I don't have any agenda I'm pushing in saying "Hey, LIFE SIZE LIFE fucking blew." I'm not trying to put anyone down, I'm not trying to bash the pillows and convince you guys to listen to more Perfume instead.

There's a time for tempering expectations and being reasonable. But individual albums don't exist in a vacuum, and we gain nothing by pretending that they do.

Trying to convince myself to be happier with less, in this particular case (where I have free will to listen to other, better music), is futile and stupid.

[quote="GoldenRhino"][quote="TJWX5"]You've probably said it before but I never seen it, please give me a brief description of why you and others think its mediocre? Not to argue, just for I can understand your stand point of view.[/quote]
"Am I REALLY listening to this through $80 headphones? Is this a 32kbps rip of OOPARTS or what?
[/quote]


First I'm surprised I read your whole post, I should be wearing my glasses

I see where your coming from, but I would agree with Raid. I think it just boils down to a matter of personal preference. Some of the things which you did not like I actually thought were good. I think these albums were DELICIOUS, but in a different taste from the before DELICIOUSNESS. To each his own. I have no quarrel with anyone's personal taste. I just wanted to know why you felt such, thanks

I hope the pillows next album will be to all our liking!

[quote="GoldenRhino"][quote="Raid"]a cook claims that the crust wasn't baked long enough, regardless if the pie is delicious[/quote]

My point in my huge-ass post was precisely that the last three pies [b]were not delicious[/b]. Both not as delicious as the pillows' previous pies, and also just not delicious PERIOD.[/quote]

I won't argue with you on this one, since the deliciousness of the pie/album is objective. But if someone else likes it, is not because we adore and walk all over what the pillows have done, some of us actually liked this album.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]
You're mistaken if you think I need to "lower my expectations." For what? What benefit do I get out of lowering my expectations for the luxury of music (or movies, tv shows, books, etc). I don't have any agenda I'm pushing in saying "Hey, LIFE SIZE LIFE fucking blew." I'm not trying to put anyone down, I'm not trying to bash the pillows and convince you guys to listen to more Perfume instead. [/quote]

I was just telling you that you should have given it an honest chance, you were expecting this to be a bad album from the start, and you were pessimistic on it from the moment it was announced.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]
There's a time for tempering expectations and being reasonable. But individual albums don't exist in a vacuum, and we gain nothing by pretending that they do.[/quote]
I'm not really getting what you're trying to say here :\

[quote="GoldenRhino"]
Trying to convince myself to be happier with less, in this particular case (where I have free will to listen to other, better music), is futile and stupid.[/quote]

I'm not convincing you to be happier with less, you're mistaken if you think I'm trying to persuade you into liking OOPARTS. You can listen to all the Perfume you want.

But arguing about this isn't getting anywhere, we all know debating opinions is useless. I just hope you guys understand that liking the recent releases =/= adoring and whoring everything Sawao shits out.

Also
[quote="Raid"]This is by no means a personal attack to any of you guys, we are all entitled to stating our own opinions but we are also entitled to listen to everyone else's[/quote]

Posting again for the sake of the thread

[quote="TJWX5"]I hope the pillows next album will be to all our liking! [/quote]

Amen to that

Apple pie, mmmmm. Ooparts pie, wtf is this, lutefisk and razorblades?

There are only four songs that I want to listen to when I'm looking at the tracklist. It's [b]day two[/b] of having the songs available. That has never happened before for me. That means something.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Tokyo Zombie.

..I just remembered something, and now I'm kinda pissed.

Where's Chelsea Hotel? I loved the Blue Poppies version.

Holy shit!

I completely forgot about that!

I liked Chelsea Hotel just as much as I liked their cover of Inuzori by The Pees.
Those were my two favorite tracks.

EDIT

I finally got a hold of ooparts with savvy networking skillz and finished listening to it...
Eh I'll critic it tomorrow but for now I'll say that I was right that it would sound different.

[quote="GoldenRhino"]



You're mistaken if you think I need to "lower my expectations." For what? What benefit do I get out of lowering my expectations for the luxury of music (or movies, tv shows, books, etc). I don't have any agenda I'm pushing in saying "Hey, LIFE SIZE LIFE fucking blew." I'm not trying to put anyone down, I'm not trying to bash the pillows and convince you guys to listen to more Perfume instead.
[/quote]
If anything, expectations should be raised with each new album.
I would like the pillows to listen to their entire discography one day in hopes of ... I'm not really sure. Maybe when listening an old song saying:"that's some really cool shit, let's do that again".
Also in hopes of Sawao to stop saying: " Our new album is my favorite album".

[quote="Raid"]I was just telling you that you should have given it an honest chance, you were expecting this to be a bad album from the start, and you were pessimistic on it from the moment it was announced.[/quote]

I wanted Penalty Life to be better than Thank You, My Twilight. It was worse.
I wanted Good Dreams to be better than Penalty Life. They were about equal.
I wanted My Foot to be better than Good Dreams. It was worse.
I wanted Wake Up! to be better than My Foot. It was worse.
I wanted Pied Piper to be better than Wake Up!. It was worse.
I wanted OOPARTS to be better than Pied Piper. It was worse

We shift our expectations based on the patterns we observe. I wasn't expecting much from this album, given I was let down by the last few albums. The stage was set for the pillows to surprise me with something great. I was let down again.

Believe me, I want to like these releases just as much as everyone else. There's no reason I'd intentionally trick myself into not liking a pillows album, that's for sure.

So I've listened to it now. Here's my ten cents. Overall scoring is measured on a scale of WIN to FAIL, with MEH being an in between.

Dance With God: Good song to enter on, and one of the winners on the CD. A bit surprised not to hear a loud "DANCE WITH GOD!!!" like in the preview/third verse on the first two verses for some reason. Some people have voiced disapproval with the echo thing they have going on in the chorus, but I don't mind it. Good song overall. WIN.

YOUR ORDER- Totally redeemed by the awesome PV. Fairly solid, although I don't know how well it would have done for me without the PV. I like the solo in this song for some reason. Engrish in the intro is meh. WIN.

Melody-I liked the live version better. The intro and bridge between verses are probably my favorite part. Otherwise it kind of plods along. MEH.

Lemon Drops-Brye, you were right, this song really clicked with me too. But there's just one problem: I can't really start jamming because of the damn Engrish. I have this thing with it, see. If I know it's English, I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to hear the words. Also, comments like this one[quote]
It sounds like
"i want to hear more of her songs
hello hello her rock

she makes me ache..."[/quote] only make the problem worse for me. But since it's a solid song, I'll give it a MEH.

Foxes- AGGGGGHHHHH. THE CHORUS. IT HURTS MY EARS. The song tries to pull itself out with horns, but by then it's too late. FAIL.

Beyond The Moon-Props for the long song, and I went into this expecting the worst after reading the comments. I actually don't mind this song up until the chorus, which is awful repetitive. This also sounds a little like 1989 in the verses. If that song was on here, it would be an instant WIN. Instead, this gets a FAIL.

Johnny Strobe: I really like the chorus to this song, but otherwise it's kind of bland. MEH.

Amegari Ni Mita Maboroshi- As long as I don't ever see how it's written on the CD jacket, "Hybrid Rainbow after The Rain", again, this is a WIN.

LIFE SIZE LIFE-A very interesting song that starts out with almost forty seconds of just instrumental, but then all of a sudden comes out with the song itself, which is very catchy. I actually like this song a lot. The Engrish is still here unfortunately, but this song is going to come out with a surprise WIN for its unconventional structure and catchy tune.

Primer Beat- Your guys comments made me listen to this track before all the others, haha. WIN. Nothing else needs to be said. This song is AMAZING. Manabe's guitar in this makes me think I'm listening to early nineties jazz-era pillows.

Yeah, this is a lot of text, but so what. The long and short of it is that this album is mediocre at best. Only about five songs that I like, and of those, maybe two really came out and grabbed me. Also, to make it sound like I'm not posting as late as I am, allow me to join current discussion by saying that I agree with B_Omar. I'm an optimist, so I'm always hoping for the best. I always have high hopes that they will break out and do something amazing again soon, but ever since MY FOOT, it's been hit and miss.