Sudden Life sounds like a Foo Fighters song and I swear it’s because they’d been touring with them shortly after Endgame.
To be clear: I like Foo Fighters just fine. But they’re a bit more… “Dad rock” than what I’d prefer out of Rise.
I'm really not a fan of Hairline fracture, Sudden life, and The approaching curve. The first 2 sound very disjointed and just not very good to me, though I I like the bridge of hairline and the lyrics of sudden life. The third is just a strange experimental mess.
Then there's like... all of the under 2 minute from Unraveling. None of them stick out to me whatsoever and I never listen to any of them.
Well, from a lyric standpoint I relate to hairline fracture a lot, but the opening took a little getting used to
The approaching curve sounds so out of the blue for rise against, but it’s almost like spoken word poetry, and tells a story incredibly well
The use of imagery and the way he talks almost in third person while being “at” the scene
I guess I get your perspective. I like the storytelling aspect of curve a lot, but musically I really don't think it works. Respect your opinion, though.
The Unraveling is one of my favorite albums from RA. It's also probably the furthest from there newest albums which I'm not a fan of too sanity really come down to the genre I guess.
Yeah, this is probably the weakest Wolves track for me. The message is great but the chorus feels like it could be in a big-corp Pride Month commercial.
Damn, hard pick.
I'm gonna stick to full albums only (since its easy to see why Rise put a few things in EPs and LFS), but overall its gotta be the original Everchanging. I know, blasphemy, but I'm just not as much a fan of some of their much older stuff. To me most of Sufferer and Appeal are the high bar, with NG being the standard for "good" IMO. The acoustic version I can tolerate, but the original just doesn't hit it for me.
Also, screw OP's title, I'm also putting my favorite here - Rules of Play, hands down, by a fucking MILE, entirely because of how personally relevant the song is for me.
Dude, "Rules of Play" is an underrated gem!
it's a sleeper hit i tell ya. in a couple years, everyone here will be hoping they start playing it. it's simple, catchy, relevant. the lead guitar during the last chorus is what sold me on it being the best song on NG1. the melodicism is perfect.
i think a big part of that was when it was written (half before & half after the 2016 election) some songs are directly about that (Walls/Breakdown/Bullshit), some are more a general view on society (PPM/Wolves) & some on their lives (Politics/House)
i feel like the record was a little disjointed content wise, kinda all over the place. i am okay with that, but i agree the production side really let it down. the title track sounds like half was recorded in a studio & half was recorded in a garage. the 'whoas' on the end of "Parts Per Million" & the intro to "Megaphone" seem out of key. which is a huge bummer because i really like Parts (& have a couple friends directly affected by the Flint water crisis, which i believe inspired that song)
For me Wolves felt like them saying 'we have enough songs for a record', not 'we have the right collection of songs for a record'. I personally think most of, if not all the songs are good (except Miracle, as we discussed in a separate comment), but they are not great together. good songs, meh album, poor engineering
dunno why they didn't go back to the Blasting Room to record it
But i will stand behind Welcome to the Breakdown as a banger. old school SoCal Hardcore vibes.
The beginning of Audience of One is one of the most boring things I've ever heard, and I feel my face droop with exhaustion the instance I hear it. It usually puts me off listening to the rest of an otherwise good song.
Nowhere Generation is up there, feels like if Simple Plan wrote an RA song
How Many Walls feels like the lowest hanging fruit ever, and isn't a particularly great song
Bullshit is just cheesy and terrible
other than that it's probably one of the filler songs from Appeal or Black Market
This might be a cop out answer, but I’ve never been a huge fan of their covers. Rise really shines with their OG music. That being said I can’t think of any songs by Rise that I dislike.
i think its a great song too
i'm gonna guess people don't like it, not because it's bad, but because its so not an RA song. it sounds like Foo Fighters gave it to them. i think if Foo dropped it instead, it'd get the recognition it deserves
Not them but it's also my choice so: I find it incredibly fucking boring. Tim sounds bored singing the verses, there's no flare to it at all. I don't think it's a terrible song by any means, it just doesn't have any part of it that stands out to put it ahead of any other song for me.
Hairline Fracture has the amazing bridge, Kotov Syndrome has cool guitars, LFS is just consistently "fine". No bad elements but nothing particularly special either. I get no form of energy or feeling when listening to it.
I can see why you would take that stance, but I honestly see it from an entirely different point of view.
Soldiers coming back home from war especially with some PTSD have a sense of numbness to the real world. They have seen/done things that they never imagined that they would have gone through and it’s beyond difficult to mentally process. What makes it worse is they come back and we Americans shower them with praise and glory but don’t take the time to ask them how are they are doing and to help them heal. Thus, becoming somber which I feel is the tone Tim carries through the song.
Again, I can see why you would take it the way you did. But I really felt this song was a beautifully designed song to take care of our troops and help them heal from the PTSD they’ve experienced in their line of duty.
I see you there that’s a really good view actually which gives me slightly more appreciation for the song, still absolutely a skip for me when I’m in the mood for rise against
I really dislike the approaching curve. Sufferer and the witness is one of their best albums, but it also has my 2 least favourite songs on it. The other being roadside.
Love sufferer and the witness but I agree it’s got some of their worst too, I personally like what they did as a one off with the approaching curve but it would get old fast if they made that their signature sound
Parts Per Million just has awful production and it's jarring the way Tim's filtered/auto tuned voice comes in on the chorus.
Hairline Fracture is absolutely album filler aside from the amazing bridge.
100% agree. All the albums do.
I don't know why but Rise Against Albums always require me to play them 1 uptick louder and for me to up the bass just a little to bring them inline with other albums from punk bands aside from the things Livermore mixed/remastered.
Nowhere Generation
Long Forgotten Songs
RPM10
The Unraveling ReRelease
agreed. Parts Per Million (IMO) is a great song, but the production is just meh.
which sucks because the guy who produced it has a SOLID string of great records under his belt. I don't fully understand what when wrong with the production & engineering of Wolves
I personally think this falls on the mixing and mastering team which were new.
Usually Chris Lord Alge (Burbank, California) handles Rise Against Albums but not only did they produce this album at a new place with a new guy, but they also gave it to new people for mixing and mastering.
Joe said he got turned off from Nick when Nick decided to focus on Tim's singing and make that the top priority over the music. As well as not getting them and their sound.
From top to bottom, everyone was new, everyone didn't get the band.
Nowhere Generation is the first time a Rise Against album was produced at the Blasting Room as well as mixed and mastered there.
I personally think Rise Against was going to fix the sound because originally they went back into the studio to re-record a few Wolves songs as acoustics so they could Re-Release Wolves.
Everytime they Re-Release something, Jason from the blasting room remasters it.
The Unraveling was remastered
RPM was remastered
All the songs on Long Forgotten songs were remastered
But instead they ended up making what would become The Ghost Note Symphonies.
I don't know if we can count it but, I never listen to The Ghost Of Tom Joad from LFS other than that I'm not the fan of Last Man Standing. I didn't like Broken Dreams Inc. at first but after Nowhere Generation LP got released it grew on me.
Damn, TGOTJ is one of my favorites from LFS. I do agree about Last Man Standing, I’m so disappointed that they chose to make that the “single”, as the 4 other songs are BANGERS.
Well, Tim's and Morello's are doing a good job on TGOTJ, but you can't hear the other singer for shit at the start and I don't really enjoy his vocal, It could be way better imo. Agree they should choose Pain Mgmt or Holding Patterns for a single. I also feel that Last Man Standing would be a great song in the style of RPM, something like Last Chance Blueprint - more aggressive and fast.
Song has a great message that a lot of people relate to on a deep level. I get that. It just never had a sound that stuck for me. I’m pretty music illiterate so I’m not sure exactly what tremolo riff is haha
I don't know.
I guess it sounds contrived that opening riff like it sounds like rise against trying to capture an old punk rock spirit but still sounds commercial to some capacity.
If I want like a raw punk Rise Against sound, I'll to put on The Unraveling or pre Sufferer
In terms of their entire catalogue I would say Fix Me, Boy’s No Good, Making Christmas are all kinda bad.
For more well-known songs, I’ll say Far From Perfect, Hero of War, This is Letting Go.
I love almost all of their discography but they defo have a few stinkers, personally I really don’t like Make it Stop, Roadside, Welcome to the Breakdown, Megaphone, Mourning in Amerika (and most songs off Wolves to be brutally honest) but 95% of their songs are at the very least decent
that's the thing though, it's not even a bad song. it's just not a very good Rise Against song. It felt like it was a papa roach or switchfoot b-side or something. not exactly the sound i wanted from RA.
as far as i'm aware, that record was written during the 2016 US election, half before, half after. Some songs written in direct reaction to it. some written before it became a reality.
I think Wolves was polarizing because they stepped away from the Blasting Room to record it without Bill. I believe the producer on wolves more commonly does 'traditional' alt rock records, not really punk. it had a different vibe production wise than other RA records, but also lyrically it felt all over the place. At a time people wanted several direct statements, they only gave us a couple.
But I actually really like the album. Overall, Wolves is really great. But it's great as a hard rock/punk record. but not the best "RA" record. a great collection of songs, but not the best work that RA has brought to the table
Sudden Life sounds like a Foo Fighters song and I swear it’s because they’d been touring with them shortly after Endgame. To be clear: I like Foo Fighters just fine. But they’re a bit more… “Dad rock” than what I’d prefer out of Rise.
Never made the comparison but now that you say it I like the song even less, good ear
Damn, dad rock. I’m old
Here’s your honorary Steely Dan album and your polo shirt!
Help Is On The Way because in high school I plagiarized the lyrics for a writing assignment and got an A+ on it. I've felt guilty about it ever since.
I did the same for a Breaking Ben song 😂
Ooooh what bb song? BB and RA are my 2 favorite bands
I took snippets from Dear Agony and added them to a poem for my English class. I knew English teacher wouldn’t notice and sure enough I got a 100%.
Did the same for Disparity by Design, but I credited them!
I'm really not a fan of Hairline fracture, Sudden life, and The approaching curve. The first 2 sound very disjointed and just not very good to me, though I I like the bridge of hairline and the lyrics of sudden life. The third is just a strange experimental mess. Then there's like... all of the under 2 minute from Unraveling. None of them stick out to me whatsoever and I never listen to any of them.
Hairline fracture and the approaching curve are actually two of my favorites lol
If you don't mind me asking, why?
Well, from a lyric standpoint I relate to hairline fracture a lot, but the opening took a little getting used to The approaching curve sounds so out of the blue for rise against, but it’s almost like spoken word poetry, and tells a story incredibly well The use of imagery and the way he talks almost in third person while being “at” the scene
I guess I get your perspective. I like the storytelling aspect of curve a lot, but musically I really don't think it works. Respect your opinion, though.
That’s fair It used to be a skip song for me, but it’s grown on a lot I’d potentially even put it in my top 5 now
I love the dark aspects of approaching curve.
Yeah same here on Sudden Life! Could never get into that one.
The Unraveling is one of my favorite albums from RA. It's also probably the furthest from there newest albums which I'm not a fan of too sanity really come down to the genre I guess.
Bruh that song is amazing. Fuck you. (Hairline)
Everyone shitting on Hairline Fracture is dead wrong. It's a banger.
It’s a banger during the intro and bridge, chorus is mid af
Make it stop (Septembers children) Has almost always been my favorite. I love the "woah woah" and i think that it's meaning is deep
Yea it really just hits you fight in the feels to hear woah woah woah oh oh oh on repeat for a few minutes
Making Christmas or Boy's No Good. Only 2 songs I skip.
I completely forgot about making Christmas, but boys no good is actually what caused me to make this post
Boys no good is a cover so I don't think it really counts, does it?
I’d say it does, unfortunately
Gotta agree on Boy’s No Good, while I like pretty much all of RA’s original songs, their covers are hit-or-miss.
Aaaaaaand that's enough of these kind of threads for me.
I don’t like far from perfect. I don’t know why. I appreciate the lyrics but it just never resonated with me
Yeah, this is probably the weakest Wolves track for me. The message is great but the chorus feels like it could be in a big-corp Pride Month commercial.
Damn, hard pick. I'm gonna stick to full albums only (since its easy to see why Rise put a few things in EPs and LFS), but overall its gotta be the original Everchanging. I know, blasphemy, but I'm just not as much a fan of some of their much older stuff. To me most of Sufferer and Appeal are the high bar, with NG being the standard for "good" IMO. The acoustic version I can tolerate, but the original just doesn't hit it for me. Also, screw OP's title, I'm also putting my favorite here - Rules of Play, hands down, by a fucking MILE, entirely because of how personally relevant the song is for me.
Dude, "Rules of Play" is an underrated gem! it's a sleeper hit i tell ya. in a couple years, everyone here will be hoping they start playing it. it's simple, catchy, relevant. the lead guitar during the last chorus is what sold me on it being the best song on NG1. the melodicism is perfect.
Roadside. I've always found it... whiny? Hard to explain -- I appreciate the duet, though
This has actually been one of my favorite as of recent, but can see why others dislike
Definitely lacking in the energy I listen to them for, totally agree
Can I say the entire Wolves album? The songs themselves are average at best but to me the production is so fucking muddy. The opposite of clear.
House on Fire is one thier best songs and I will die on this hill
I enjoy the song as a whole, but the way Tim says "hand grenade" in this song bugs the crap out of me lol
Definitely agree there the whole album just feels poorly executed
i think a big part of that was when it was written (half before & half after the 2016 election) some songs are directly about that (Walls/Breakdown/Bullshit), some are more a general view on society (PPM/Wolves) & some on their lives (Politics/House) i feel like the record was a little disjointed content wise, kinda all over the place. i am okay with that, but i agree the production side really let it down. the title track sounds like half was recorded in a studio & half was recorded in a garage. the 'whoas' on the end of "Parts Per Million" & the intro to "Megaphone" seem out of key. which is a huge bummer because i really like Parts (& have a couple friends directly affected by the Flint water crisis, which i believe inspired that song) For me Wolves felt like them saying 'we have enough songs for a record', not 'we have the right collection of songs for a record'. I personally think most of, if not all the songs are good (except Miracle, as we discussed in a separate comment), but they are not great together. good songs, meh album, poor engineering dunno why they didn't go back to the Blasting Room to record it But i will stand behind Welcome to the Breakdown as a banger. old school SoCal Hardcore vibes.
Politics of love
Oh man this is one of my favorites! But you did answer the question, so upvoting haha
Sorry but I have to say Sudden Life excluding Covers (with covers the boys no good )
So what I'm taking away from this is you guys don't like versatility out of a band noted lol. Noted
The beginning of Audience of One is one of the most boring things I've ever heard, and I feel my face droop with exhaustion the instance I hear it. It usually puts me off listening to the rest of an otherwise good song.
Nowhere Generation is up there, feels like if Simple Plan wrote an RA song How Many Walls feels like the lowest hanging fruit ever, and isn't a particularly great song Bullshit is just cheesy and terrible other than that it's probably one of the filler songs from Appeal or Black Market
Mourning in Amerika. Literally the only non cover RA song not in my playlist.
This might be a cop out answer, but I’ve never been a huge fan of their covers. Rise really shines with their OG music. That being said I can’t think of any songs by Rise that I dislike.
Damn didn't know everyone hates sudden life :( I love that song
i think its a great song too i'm gonna guess people don't like it, not because it's bad, but because its so not an RA song. it sounds like Foo Fighters gave it to them. i think if Foo dropped it instead, it'd get the recognition it deserves
Kotov Syndrome, is a weird song
I have to disagree, I absolutely love Kotov syndrome.
Only song in their entire catalogue I consider bad.
Definitely a wierd song, I like it
Long Forgotten Sons.
How
I answer the question and get downvoted and questioned. Lmao typical Reddit.
Answers with no reason, gets downvoted because people disagree and have no explanation to understand based off of, complains, Classic Reddit
Not them but it's also my choice so: I find it incredibly fucking boring. Tim sounds bored singing the verses, there's no flare to it at all. I don't think it's a terrible song by any means, it just doesn't have any part of it that stands out to put it ahead of any other song for me. Hairline Fracture has the amazing bridge, Kotov Syndrome has cool guitars, LFS is just consistently "fine". No bad elements but nothing particularly special either. I get no form of energy or feeling when listening to it.
Hero of War
Same
Absolutely, too dry for what it’s trying to be, too soft for RA
Are you sure you’re really understanding what it is trying to be?!
I think there isn’t enough emotion in his vocal performance or enough energy in the music for conveying the struggle of coming back from war
I can see why you would take that stance, but I honestly see it from an entirely different point of view. Soldiers coming back home from war especially with some PTSD have a sense of numbness to the real world. They have seen/done things that they never imagined that they would have gone through and it’s beyond difficult to mentally process. What makes it worse is they come back and we Americans shower them with praise and glory but don’t take the time to ask them how are they are doing and to help them heal. Thus, becoming somber which I feel is the tone Tim carries through the song. Again, I can see why you would take it the way you did. But I really felt this song was a beautifully designed song to take care of our troops and help them heal from the PTSD they’ve experienced in their line of duty.
I see you there that’s a really good view actually which gives me slightly more appreciation for the song, still absolutely a skip for me when I’m in the mood for rise against
For sure, Hero of War/People Live Here/Forfeit all kinda get grouped together on their own little playlist lol…
i think that’s the point, it’s supposed to sound jaded, the person in the song is suffering from ptsd after the events during his time in the military
Same
If we're getting spicy, Hero of War is made completely defunct by the much better Survivor Guilt which covers (roughly) the same themes
That's a good point. And I never thought of it like that.
Entertainment. I don't know why - I've just never clicked with it.
Blood to Bleed. I need more energy, fewer tears.
Cant agree with you there but I do agree they need to do more yelling at you about revolution and less whining
More anger, less whining. Yes.
"more energy, fewer tears" Man I love this song but here, take my upvote lmao
I really dislike the approaching curve. Sufferer and the witness is one of their best albums, but it also has my 2 least favourite songs on it. The other being roadside.
Love sufferer and the witness but I agree it’s got some of their worst too, I personally like what they did as a one off with the approaching curve but it would get old fast if they made that their signature sound
Nowhere Generation People live here Edit: I forgot the obvious: Last Man Standing
Entertainment for me
In an odd way it gives me SOAD vibes, really good at the right time really bad at the wrong time
Parts Per Million just has awful production and it's jarring the way Tim's filtered/auto tuned voice comes in on the chorus. Hairline Fracture is absolutely album filler aside from the amazing bridge.
Wolves desperately needs Jason Livermore to remaster it. I didn’t know how much I missed The Blasting Room until Nowhere Generation dropped
100% agree. All the albums do. I don't know why but Rise Against Albums always require me to play them 1 uptick louder and for me to up the bass just a little to bring them inline with other albums from punk bands aside from the things Livermore mixed/remastered. Nowhere Generation Long Forgotten Songs RPM10 The Unraveling ReRelease
I get they were going for the whole “protest anthems” type of vibe with Wolves but that doesn’t excuse how godawful the production is.
I like the begging of hairline fracture but definitely agree about the chorus
agreed. Parts Per Million (IMO) is a great song, but the production is just meh. which sucks because the guy who produced it has a SOLID string of great records under his belt. I don't fully understand what when wrong with the production & engineering of Wolves
I personally think this falls on the mixing and mastering team which were new. Usually Chris Lord Alge (Burbank, California) handles Rise Against Albums but not only did they produce this album at a new place with a new guy, but they also gave it to new people for mixing and mastering. Joe said he got turned off from Nick when Nick decided to focus on Tim's singing and make that the top priority over the music. As well as not getting them and their sound. From top to bottom, everyone was new, everyone didn't get the band. Nowhere Generation is the first time a Rise Against album was produced at the Blasting Room as well as mixed and mastered there. I personally think Rise Against was going to fix the sound because originally they went back into the studio to re-record a few Wolves songs as acoustics so they could Re-Release Wolves. Everytime they Re-Release something, Jason from the blasting room remasters it. The Unraveling was remastered RPM was remastered All the songs on Long Forgotten songs were remastered But instead they ended up making what would become The Ghost Note Symphonies.
Swing Life Away 😬
🍅🍅🍅🍅
Forfeit
Swing life away
Show me a man who likes it when punk bands get slow and I’ll show you a liar
You’ve got my upvote haha
I don't know if we can count it but, I never listen to The Ghost Of Tom Joad from LFS other than that I'm not the fan of Last Man Standing. I didn't like Broken Dreams Inc. at first but after Nowhere Generation LP got released it grew on me.
Damn, TGOTJ is one of my favorites from LFS. I do agree about Last Man Standing, I’m so disappointed that they chose to make that the “single”, as the 4 other songs are BANGERS.
Well, Tim's and Morello's are doing a good job on TGOTJ, but you can't hear the other singer for shit at the start and I don't really enjoy his vocal, It could be way better imo. Agree they should choose Pain Mgmt or Holding Patterns for a single. I also feel that Last Man Standing would be a great song in the style of RPM, something like Last Chance Blueprint - more aggressive and fast.
It’s not my least favorite but I never got the hype around Survive
I think everyone who loves survive has just never heard a tremolo riff and is going crazy for it
Song has a great message that a lot of people relate to on a deep level. I get that. It just never had a sound that stuck for me. I’m pretty music illiterate so I’m not sure exactly what tremolo riff is haha
Tremolo riff is that rapid sound on the guitar you hear in surf rock and black metal
Sudden life and Eco-terrorist These are the only two songs I'll always skip and I genuinely like their catalog but, idk about these two
What about Eco-Terrorist specifically would you say? Generally I hear praise for it because Tim is screaming.
I don't know. I guess it sounds contrived that opening riff like it sounds like rise against trying to capture an old punk rock spirit but still sounds commercial to some capacity. If I want like a raw punk Rise Against sound, I'll to put on The Unraveling or pre Sufferer
Fair
In terms of their entire catalogue I would say Fix Me, Boy’s No Good, Making Christmas are all kinda bad. For more well-known songs, I’ll say Far From Perfect, Hero of War, This is Letting Go.
I feel like most of their slow stuff just doesn’t do it the same
Roadside.
Have just never like Entertainment
I love almost all of their discography but they defo have a few stinkers, personally I really don’t like Make it Stop, Roadside, Welcome to the Breakdown, Megaphone, Mourning in Amerika (and most songs off Wolves to be brutally honest) but 95% of their songs are at the very least decent
Definitely agree with you that their mostly good with a few that suck, make it stop has its place though
I always found Make it Stop to be really boring personally, knew this wouldn’t be a popular comment lmao
It’s musicly decent but the lyrics come out corny
tie between - "Hairline Fracture" off Appeal & "Miracle" off Wolves Hairline just didn't grab me Miracle felt phoned in
Man that's crazy how jarring that album is to fans. Miracle to me feels like one of the better tracks off Wolves.
that's the thing though, it's not even a bad song. it's just not a very good Rise Against song. It felt like it was a papa roach or switchfoot b-side or something. not exactly the sound i wanted from RA. as far as i'm aware, that record was written during the 2016 US election, half before, half after. Some songs written in direct reaction to it. some written before it became a reality. I think Wolves was polarizing because they stepped away from the Blasting Room to record it without Bill. I believe the producer on wolves more commonly does 'traditional' alt rock records, not really punk. it had a different vibe production wise than other RA records, but also lyrically it felt all over the place. At a time people wanted several direct statements, they only gave us a couple. But I actually really like the album. Overall, Wolves is really great. But it's great as a hard rock/punk record. but not the best "RA" record. a great collection of songs, but not the best work that RA has brought to the table
Hairlines intro and bridge work well, the chorus is wack af, I’d say miracle is worse
i like the bridge of Hairline, but not much else about it. it kinda felt like they needed another song & just wrote it as filler
Yea it definitely doesn’t have the same quality as the rest of appeal to reason
Dirt Whispered I've never understood what they're getting at
Yea the lyrics are a little hard to get behind but I feel like the vocal performance saves it
Hero of War. Love their ballads, but just not this one.
Yea it always sounded a little dry for how deep the subject matter is
Ummmmm I am not sure. I have to play some and see what I usually skip. It’s not many.
Bro do you even like RA? Cause you agree with almost every song here being bad
I agree with the bad ones being bad
Bridges
Halfway There is a favorite. Don’t have a least favorite but I do have many skip tracks.
I don't care for Hero of War.