The Record Club Final Word: Nate on Mclusky Do Dallas

If you pick an album for Record Club, you will get an "exit survey" on Friday morning, after the reviews have been published. This isn't to add more to your workload; I instead just want to provide space for the album picker to have the final say, if they feel like they need some sort of closure on the week. It's totally and completely optional. For now. Probably gonna make it mandatory in 2023. Not that that means much on a blog. I'm not the fucking police.

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 1. Was there anyone who convinced you to consider a different opinion regarding the album itself?

There are really only two opinions a person can have about this album, assuming they can get past the angular, screaming punishment of the arrangements. Those are opinions are some version of "hell yes" or "fuck this meanie and fuck you, too." I was certainly pleased to see which side of the line we all fell on (the correct side), but no one really tried to move us off our block. The world loves us and is our bitch.

2. Was there anyone who you felt did a good/bad job at presenting their own views, regardless of whether you agreed with said views?

It's never a straight line with Joe, but the number at the bottom goes a long way to driving home the ultimate feeling, as the number is supposed to do. Dark nights of the soul at the local watering hole, and so on. Sunny, as per the usual, gets to the point while also revealing too much about his own life. Get a system in the whip, Sunny!

3. Were the reviews varied, or did this album elicit same-y opinions? What about that album made that true? Or do you think that this answer is reviewer-dependent and not album-dependent?

I am not going to answer this question and instead I am going to say that none of us did a good enough job talking about the instrumentation of the album; the propulsion of the rhythm section, how the drummer sounds like the angriest metronome on earth, how critical and forward-in-the-mix the bass guitar is on all these songs, how relatively little power-chording the guitar does in favor of creating a secondary melody for the vocals to play off of. I also think none of us talked enough about how fucking great "To Hell With Good Intentions" is, send that song into space on a golden disc. These, of course, are the things you think about when you've been listening to an album for twelve years and you've wrung all you can out of the lyrics.

On second thought, I did a bad job representing my views. Stung by my own venom.

4. Did the variety of reviews justify the album choice? Would you choose a different album (yes/no) based on the reviews received?

I might have selected a more modern album in the "music that hates you genre," maybe the latest Single Mothers or Chat Pile, but no, I am happy with my choice. In my heart of hearts, I wish more folks would have written about how this album sucks / is mean, but the world is not my plaything.

5. What can Record Club do differently to make your RC experience (especially as a weekly captain) a worthwhile one?

Dismantle Ticketmaster / build a better rock venue in Rochester, NY.

6. Any other takeaways you have from this experience?

I'm aching from fucking too much.