Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

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scarecrow
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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by scarecrow »

cheesedip1 wrote:yeah im not seeing whats so great about the song; its okay i guess, might need more time to digest it
For me much of its appeal is similar to that of Isolation - very heavy and very catchy, which is hard to pull off. Isolation is top 5 AB for me though.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by Ubik »

scarecrow wrote:
cheesedip1 wrote:yeah im not seeing whats so great about the song; its okay i guess, might need more time to digest it
For me much of its appeal is similar to that of Isolation - very heavy and very catchy, which is hard to pull off. Isolation is top 5 AB for me though.
And its appeal is immediate. As soon as that chorus hit, I was grinning, whereas much of the album I needed to absorb.
For all of the hope that it brings...

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by GazEd »

Ubik wrote:
scarecrow wrote:
cheesedip1 wrote:yeah im not seeing whats so great about the song; its okay i guess, might need more time to digest it
For me much of its appeal is similar to that of Isolation - very heavy and very catchy, which is hard to pull off. Isolation is top 5 AB for me though.
And its appeal is immediate. As soon as that chorus hit, I was grinning, whereas much of the album I needed to absorb.
Pretty funny how opinions differ. Immediate appeal for me is something like Metallingus, Isolation or Addicted to Pain. I actually put these three in the same row under the same formula: heavy, fast, amazing.

I am always waiting for a "song like that" on an ab record.

Never happened eversince hehe
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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

Well, that's why I'm wondering why Wouldn't You Rather isn't getting more acclaim from people. I thing it's one of those tracks like Metalingus, Isolation, Addicted to Pain, and you can add Crows on a Wire to that list as well.

Again, I'm surprised that WYR isn't "more liked."

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by AB23 »

Disagree. Best or second best on the album, but my biggest issue with this album is that it doesn't have any all time greats imo. Blackbird, STTV, Words, Fortress, Achilles, CTF, TLH, and TSOF are all better to me.

It's missing some "umph" to it. It doesn't have one of those dramatic, epic choruses, it kinda has a poppy, catchy one. The verses are so amazing, and then you get to the chorus and it feels like it could've been the chorus for any of the other songs. Nothing really unique about it. Just catchy.

I also think the bridge was lacking a bit. Not memorable at all to me. But that was an album-wide problem to me.
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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by AB23 »

Also, personally, I liked Waters Rising more than this.
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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

I've never liked Waters Rising. The only time I thought it was cool was hearing Mark go after it in the RAH concert. Maybe that's why I like this one so much, because it's all on a relative scale for me.

But you're right, this album is completely missing a song that soars heads above the rest. No real, full-on distinctive qualities. Again, I do not like a lot of the song layering and arrangements. Get a single Myles in some of these choruses, and it can maybe help out a little bit. I don't know, for me it always comes back to the production/mixing and how much I loathe it all.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by RuRo »

Obviously some people might consider it that since everyone's got their own opinions - it's not like everyone considers Blackbird the best Alter Bridge song after all, even if it's probably the highest rated overall.

But I don't think there will be a general sense that lots of people rate Forever Falling as Alter Bridge's best work since Blackbird, since I don't think it would pass something like Cry Of Achilles, which is the song I generally get the sense of being highest regarded since Blackbird. And there are other songs like Calm The Fire, Fortress, This Side Of Fate, The Last Hero, Words Darker Than Their Wings, Slip To The Void that are either "epics" or very highly regarded songs that some people are likely to pick out as among Alter Bridge's best work (I may be somewhat biased towards listing songs I also rate highly and forgetting some that I don't consider among the best, but these are some that I remember generally doing well in favourite song polls etc. for their albums). Like I said, there will never be agreement on what the best songs are from every fan as everyone has their own favourites. But I don't think there will be even a general, loose consensus that Forever Falling passes all the other high water marks since Blackbird.

It is a great song though, and was probably the one that most immediately sounded closest to being one of those all time great Alter Bridge songs. But it wasn't quite as big an impact as some of the other best songs from other Alter Bridge albums. There are some strong songs on Walk The Sky, but I do think its maybe lacking some of those absolute "Wow" songs that have been previous on the previous albums. Even The Last Hero, while I think it was quite variable quality with some forgettable songs and I could critique the general loudness of the production, it had songs like The Last Hero, Island Of Fools, This Side Of Fate, The Other Side, Cradle To The Grave that stood out a lot. First listening to Walk The Sky, there wasn't really a song that I felt "OK, this one gets a free ticket directly to the Alter Bridge hall of fame." Forever Falling was probably closest though.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

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MuffinMcFluffin wrote: and you can add Crows on a Wire to that list as well.
Nah.

More of Otherside, but not even close anyway.
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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by TheEndisHere »

It's good but there are lots of great songs between that are better than Forever Falling. Fortress, Cry of Achilles, Cradle to the Grave, and The Last Hero (title track) are definitely above Forever Falling and below Blackbird to me.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

GazEd wrote:
MuffinMcFluffin wrote: and you can add Crows on a Wire to that list as well.
Nah.

More of Otherside, but not even close anyway.
I'm talking about with that song style, like it's this accessible rock thing that anyone can get into. Crows is in the middle of the pack for me on TLH, if that.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by Blackbird »

If songs like Isolation, ATP and Metalingus are the reference, then SMAL is the TLH track that fits into this category best. It's an up-tempo, in-your-face song with a positive feeling (talking about melody here, not lyrics). Crows is just another Cry A River or FTTS, a generic hard rock song.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by Buffon »

Crows on a Wire also suffers from being probably the biggest example of self-plagiarism in the AB catalog: a rewritten Isolation with Come to Life's chorus. Particularly notable when you listen to all three of them in the same set.
Blackbird wrote:If songs like Isolation, ATP and Metalingus are the reference, then SMAL is the TLH track that fits into this category best. It's an up-tempo, in-your-face song with a positive feeling (talking about melody here, not lyrics)
I agree with this: in other words, Show Me A Leader is the one that was written specifically to be the radio single, much like Wouldn't You Rather.

As for Forever Falling, it's a very good song and seems like a lot of people's favorite on the album, but I think this sums it up:
RuRo wrote:But I don't think there will be even a general, loose consensus that Forever Falling passes all the other high water marks since Blackbird.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

Buffon wrote:Crows on a Wire also suffers from being probably the biggest example of self-plagiarism in the AB catalog: a rewritten Isolation with Come to Life's chorus. Particularly notable when you listen to all three of them in the same set.
It absolutely sounds like Isolation, that's why I tied it in with it. That's also why I don't like them using both songs in a concert setlist.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by scarecrow »

Crows On A Wire is mediocre. Not bad but paint by numbers.

I can only say that Forever Falling is one of the handful of AB songs that REALLY grabs me. Blackbird, Slip To The Void, Isolation, Forever Falling. I guess I really go for the dark, heavy stuff that does really interesting interesting, unexpected stuff with melody.

I want music to do one of two things: make me feel good or be particularly meaningful - engage me emotionally and intellectually. Forever Falling does both.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by Arctic »

I actually didn’t really like Crows On A Wire for the longest time, but I was listening to all their albums on shuffle and it came on and I was really into it. It’s not top ten or anything but it’s a great song.
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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

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George wrote:The song did not have that impact for me, so no.
Agreed. The influence of Metallica on Tremonti is awesome. Tremonti’s vocals are great again. But the song in totality is nowhere in the same universe as Blackbird or their other 20-something anthems. It’s not even Top 5 for me on Walking The Sky.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by rscotta831 »

Jesterhead92 wrote:If anything on this album can possibly approach the classic status, my money's on the title track. I like Forever Falling a lot, don't get me wrong, but I'd put at LEAST 20 songs in their catalog above it.
Agreed. Unfortunately, this album lacks an anthem like on every other album of their’s. Dying Light might be as close as it gets.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by rscotta831 »

MuffinMcFluffin wrote:Well, that's why I'm wondering why Wouldn't You Rather isn't getting more acclaim from people. I thing it's one of those tracks like Metalingus, Isolation, Addicted to Pain, and you can add Crows on a Wire to that list as well.

Again, I'm surprised that WYR isn't "more liked."
All four of the songs you named are light years more heavy and better than WYR. Not a bad song, just isn’t in my Top 50 AB songs.

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Re: Forever Falling: AB's best work since Blackbird title track?

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

rscotta831 wrote:
MuffinMcFluffin wrote:Well, that's why I'm wondering why Wouldn't You Rather isn't getting more acclaim from people. I thing it's one of those tracks like Metalingus, Isolation, Addicted to Pain, and you can add Crows on a Wire to that list as well.

Again, I'm surprised that WYR isn't "more liked."
All four of the songs you named are light years more heavy and better than WYR. Not a bad song, just isn’t in my Top 50 AB songs.
Not in mine, either. I was just referring to style. I can blend Crows on a Wire and Isolation together, and you'd be convinced they are the same song with different lyrics (which, of course, is half of a song).

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