15 years of Lifeblood

[IntlDebris]

Originally Posted by Donkey

2) It confirmed the problem showed on KYE - that the genius is completely gone. GT, GATS has genius on, but not fully developed, THB - genius fully developed, EMG - genius + a bit of filler, TIMTTMY - the melancholic sound of a leaving genius, KYE - genius gone.
If you want to examine that, I recommend b-sides. It doesn't necessarily mean all the older b-sides are better than all the new ones, but you can clearly hear, how easily the guys wrote the songs then and how hard it became with the years. Songs like Masking Tape, Groundhog Days or Fear of Motion - musically they are so empty and senseless.

Curiously, other than a slight dip with GATS, I actually found they spent the '90s getting better, rather than worse. EMG and TIMT is their peak for me, the point where they really got their own sound rather than wearing their influences so heavily on their sleeves (my girlfriend hates THB as all she can hear is them ripping off a load of post-punk bands, haha). So I would say it's unfair to say the genius is completely gone. KYE's definitely not one of my favourites, but I think the other albums from this era are all exceptionally strong.

I agree that it would have been far more successful around 2000/2001, however. There was a massive audience for big, sweeping, mellow indie stuff around that type, helped in part by the popularity of TIMT, with bands like Coldplay, Travis, Turin Breaks, etc., and a campaign led by songs like 'Empty Souls' and 'Solitude Sometimes Is' would have done really well at that point. Instead, they released their scuzzy, lo-fi album, and then waited for scuzzy, lo-fi indie to start selling well and released Lifeblood.