• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

At the Drive-In - in·ter a·li·a |OT| At the Reuni-On

sqwarlock

Member
atthedriveintercd.jpg


Consisting of members from The Mars Volta and Sparta, At the Drive-In is back with their first studio album in 17 years.

Tracklist:
  1. No Wolf Like the Present
  2. Continuum
  3. Tilting at the Univendor
  4. Governed by Contagions
  5. Pendulum in a Peasant Dress
  6. Incurably Innocent
  7. Call Broken Arrow
  8. Holtzclaw
  9. Torrentially Cutshaw
  10. Ghost-Tape No. 9
  11. Hostage Stamps

Listen to the album:
Spotify
Apple Music
Google Play
Amazon

Reviews:

AV Club - D
That's not what you want from a reunion, but it is a reminder of the band's former glory, if only by its total absence.

Consequence of Sound - B
With in•ter a•li•a, they not only prove that they can still be one of the most interesting and complex bands in the land, but that they don't have to tear themselves apart to do it, either.

Paste - 7.7
in•ter a•li•a is frankly as promising an album as we can hope to expect from a group of guys who set the bar and then ran away from it 17 years back.
 

hughesta

Banned
Album's pretty good. They were never gonna pull another Relationship of Command out of their hats but it's definitely a solid record.
 
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez also released an album today, Birth of a Ghost, which is pretty much the exact opposite genre-wise as in·ter a·li·a.

in·ter a·li·a is an alright record. Nothing really stands out and it all tends to blend together. I was genuinely surprised that, in recent interviews, they said they were thinking of what the audience would be expecting to hear when they were recording the album. That's the last thing I would expect from Omar or Cedric.
 

sqwarlock

Member
Lol the AV Club was just the reviewer going on about his nostalgia for the band

Pretty much. Don't get me wrong, my hard-on for Relationship of Command knows no bounds, but it's not a good way to look at this album.

I'd rank it a solid C+/7.5 though. It's not great by any means, but it's not terrible. Definitely not as good as I was hoping after 17 years, but about what I expected.
 
Gave this a a listen earlier. Wasn't blown away or anything so I think I'll just keep Relationship in Command on repeat.
 
Gave this a a listen earlier. Wasn't blown away or anything so I think I'll just keep Relationship in Command on repeat.

Kind of in the same boat, I'm slowly enjoying it though. It's sort of a step backwards from In/Casino/Out in terms of style, not saying that as a negative.
 

vatstep

This poster pulses with an appeal so broad the typical restraints of our societies fall by the wayside.
Lol the AV Club was just the reviewer going on about his nostalgia for the band
I don't really dig the album that much, but Jesus, what a horrible review. Why is this guy so ashamed to like The Get Up Kids?
 

sqwarlock

Member
I don't really dig the album that much, but Jesus, what a horrible review. Why is this guy so ashamed to like The Get Up Kids?

Was also surprised by his shame over liking Jimmy Eat World. Similar sentiment found in the comments too. Don't understand that shit.
 

compo

Banned
Just finished the first listen through. I agree with the "mehs." The guitars and Cedric's vocals don't sound as raw and aggressive as they did in past albums. That's 100% expected, given how long it's been, but it still ends up being a little meh.

It's kind of an interesting phenomenon. The Rolling Stones just released an album a few months ago which sounds great, but it was like 90% straight blues. So I guess certain bands age better depending on what genre they're in. Blues bands could play forever and still sound like they're the best in the genre, while punk bands are only really good when all the members are relatively young, then they start to sound like mediocre cover bands of their former selves.
 
Yeah, listened to this earlier.

For years after RoC, I was gasping for a new ATD-I album and I was disappointed by Mars Volta.

This album is just... solid. It's a solid rock record, but it lacks the energy and the creativity of RoC. I'm in no rush to spin it again.
 
I bought Relationship of Command when it came out, was big punk/rock/etc at the time and just did not like the album at all. Felt like too much screaming or something.

I might try and give it another listen, maybe I was just too much of an idiot to appreciate it or something.
 
Yeah, listened to this earlier.

For years after RoC, I was gasping for a new ATD-I album and I was disappointed by Mars Volta.

This album is just... solid. It's a solid rock record, but it lacks the energy and the creativity of RoC. I'm in no rush to spin it again.

If you were disappointed with De-Loused in the Comatorium I'd say you were lying. That whole album is a god damn masterpiece.
 

Fisty

Member
Eh expected, Cedric and Omar have been blowing their creative load for over a decade with Mars Volta so I'm not surprised they are probably tapped out. Would have been interesting to have Jim back in the mix, but... whatever.
 
If you were disappointed with De-Loused in the Comatorium I'd say you were lying. That whole album is a god damn masterpiece.

I hated that album so much. I wanted to love it because of my fondness of ATD-I, but 'twas not to be. I bought the CD when it came out, spent a week listening to it on train on my commute to work and I could not get into it at all.
 

belvedere

Junior Butler
Not a bad album by any means, but I'd have loved to hear an album with Jim present. On Relationship of Command the fusion of prog/Omar and Jim was perfectly balanced.

I hated that album so much. I wanted to love it because of my fondness of ATD-I, but 'twas not to be. I bought the CD when it came out, spent a week listening to it on train on my commute to work and I could not get into it at all.

This is how I felt about all post Frances The Mute TMV albums. Deloused is a masterpiece though.
 

DirtyLarry

Member
Really surprised by the responses in here. This album is great.
Have to say the same. I have listened to it at least 20 times since Wednesday (I preordered the vinyl and it arrived early which was a nice surprise), and I love it. I feel they have done a pretty damn good job of keeping their sound after a 17 year long hiatus.
 
Album's pretty good. They were never gonna pull another Relationship of Command out of their hats but it's definitely a solid record.

Yup, listened to it 2 or 3 times now (listening to it right now actually) and it's definitely a solid/consistent album

B+

Been listening to ATDI since 2001, btw :)
 

DirtyLarry

Member
Just wanted to add to a thread...

There are a handful of records that are created under a specific set of circumstances at exactly the right moment in a band's history that lead to a bonafide classic. Relationship of Command is one of those albums.

Simply put, they never will (nor would they have done so if they never broke up) create another Relationship of Command.

So while I get why many people will by human nature compare the new album to RoC, it is an album that is incomparable. Especially keeping that in mind, I really do like this new album. I may even lean towards it is great, but I need to listen to it some more before I can give it that distinction. However the more I listen to it, the better it gets. And these days it is usually the opposite. The more I listen to an album the more I realize it is only okay.

I also have to say one of the things I enjoy about it is it does feel like an album. Nowadays most albums do not. They feel like a handful of singles with songs that are clearly not singles. It is a result of distribution methods have changed and in turn disrupted the entire notion of an album. That may not make sense to some, but I just feel like a lot of albums these days are not cohesive. And this album is.
 

DeathPeak

Member
My expectations were low. It's better and more aggressive than I was expecting. Solid B-. If someone seriously thought they were going to release an album better than Relationship 17 years later then that's just foolish.
 

soultron

Banned
Hoping this is good. The single they released felt pretty flat, so I'm not really optimistic. Think I prefer TMV these days but my nostalgia for ROC and ICO give me a shred of hope for this one.
 

jviggy43

Member
I was a bit disappointed, probably wont listen to it again. Had 1 or 2 tracks I liked but other than that didn't do much for me but I also was never a huge ATDI fan as much as I was a MV fan.
 
Top Bottom