Lost

[Deschanel]

I am really loving I Will Fall this week. When it goes uptempo it's dashing, a romantic urgency to it that reminds me of Between Two Islands' best part ("I want you.."). And the classic PSB theme of romantic escape."Come away with me..". I really enjoy it. Maybe those long fade-outs are PSB cliché, whatever, very minor bitch.

I admire The Lost Room, it's quality stuff indeed. Those boarding school days in the days of Empiaaah when the sun never set.. This Must be the Place etc. No, it's a keeper, quite good.
I don't care for the rest. Neil's fascination with Russian/Soviet history bores me, sorry. I've been patient about it for a very long time!

I didn't realize these were demos- PSB are certainly not touting that in this low-key release. I've always enjoyed PSB's demos, and with the high quality of digital production anyone at home has now with a computer- the line between a demo and an officially "produced" song seems mostly how much polish and effort one wants to put into it. A demo used to mean a 4-track quick n dirty tape with lots of hiss and noise, today digital demos are pristine and lab-clean.
Anyway. 2 fine songs out of 5 ain't bad.

[daveid]

These may be called demos but they are studio quality and the fact that they've been released makes them bona fide finished products. I'm sure some additional sheen was put on them before release. What I'm a little puzzled about is the fact that TLR was one of the fourteen oven-ready tracks produced with Price for Super. It was expected to end up as a b-side but never did. Does that mean there is a more polished version out there that hasn't been released or is this it? and if the latter is true then how can it be called a demo?

[Flaffer]

It makes me think the Stuart Price version is the o e described as ‘techno’ by Chris. I cannot imagine that applies to this version

[westendboy87]

Been excited for this release for the last few months, now. Of course, the week it was released, I was quite sick with the flu, but had to listen. Immediately loved The Lost Room, as the lyrics go very nicely with the music, and the music itself is something different with the interesting change in key from the verse to the chorus, "for we have camaraderie" with that major chord sounds really nice. I noticed people said that the track could have been produced to sound much larger. I definitely get that, although I do believe that this mix of The Lost Room's sparse musical backdrop go well with its lyrics. Would be interesting to hear the other version that Neil and Chris had mentioned. I think I listened to these out of order, btw, must have been the cough medicine. Anyway, I then listened Kaputnik (this was one I was really excited about just from knowing the title). Hearing the breakbeat had me EXCITED, but then came the chanting. I can handle chanting type things sometimes, but with PSB it's either great, or NOPE. (ie: I have a version of Building A Wall that excludes the shouting before each verse, because it made my skin crawl, but the song is otherwise pretty great, so I had to do it lmao). Anyway, I listened through Kaputnik and noted that Neil did a nice job with his spoken lyrics in this one, but otherwise, I think Neil's vocals could've been mastered differently or had some other effect applied to make them better fit into the song. The lyrics weren't bad, only clumsy at times. Still, though, I was feeling like utter crap at that time, and cynically deemed the song to be crap. Skeletons In The Close was next and the first thing I noticed was hat they used the same beats and even a couple of the same synths as Twenty Something, which is totally cool, as that kind of thing can happen when writing songs. I wasn't fond of the "shake and rattle those bones" parts, but I DID really love the chorus for it's lyrics and music. It didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth, which was a relief. And I happen to love that reagatron-y beat they used. Next was I Will Fall, and I eagerly was listening for the political references. It didn't disappoint me, though. To me it sounds very much like it could've fit nicely onto Super if just further worked on from it's demo form. Didn't bother listening to Living In The Past bevause when I do, I get the sensation that I am an infant being rocked back and forth by Neil, himself, putting me the f*ck to sleep. The lyrics are good, and yeah, I will day that the final version is better than the demo, but still, I'm still in the midst of my winter depression here in Michigan.

Bear in mind, that was my first listen to it, being very sick, and generally not in a good state did to a family tragedy, I was perhaps not being as fair as I should've been. I finally got better a couple days ago, thank God. Was ROUGH. But I re-listened to Lost. Got much more of an appreciation for all of the songs. I didn't expect these to be "hit" material from the start. I was expecting some weird stuff, and I'm one of the freaks who usually love their weird stuff. My feelings for The Lost Room did not change. It's great. It would be an AMAZING b-side. I tend to dig their b-sides too. I used software to reduce how much "Kaputnik!" was chanted in the song, but without it, the song honestly was worse. The thing about Kaputnik is that it's got (in my mind) a really hooky chorus ("you know what it means, I'll crush all your dreams") It sounds like something they would've released in the Very era to my ears.

So last night I spoke to my brother who is a PSB fan by proxy (otherwise he listens to nothing but rap stuff and modern style crazy EDM). He's been out of state so we sort of chatted a bit then he gave it a listen. I was expecting him to be dismissive of it, but he really seemed like he dug the tracks. He said that The Lost Room is very true to the PSB sound. Then, to my horror, uttered, "I think Kaputnik is probably your favorite, isn't it?" It was then that I realized, yaaa, while not my favorite on the EP, it's up there, and my ears will likely adjust to the chants. For now, I still like, hide away somewhere if I want to listen to it loud. Wouldn't want to annoy anyone nearby with all of the "Kaputnik!" Even then, it's a great track! And surely with a little booze this summer I will be blasting Kaputnik shamelessly at a bonfire (as well as the others). They're all great tracks, in my opinion, and definitely each have unique feelings to them, musically. Lots of comparisons to Agenda. While it had a more produced sound, I don't know if I could say that I prefer it over Lost or the other way around. They're both great in their way. For me, any material from PSB is exciting. And as with many of their songs, they take time to grow on me. Once they do, that's it. Sorry for rattling on, and any spelling/grammar errors. I'm writing this from my phone lmao. Bear in mind, it's all my personal opinion, and no one's is above anyone else's. I'm usually a lurker here and I just read y'alls threads. But I had to chirp in with my thoughts.

[Old Soak]

Is it just me or is the opening hook of Kaputnik reminiscent of New Order's Confusion?

[Dog]

Is it just me or is the opening hook of Kaputnik reminiscent of New Order's Confusion?

I thought the same. It’s the same phrasing.

[rashomon]

Loving the EP after a full week of listening ... (Kaputnik is only tolerable in small doses though and get's the 'skip' treatment often)

So on the theme of 'Modern fascism' as per Neil ... I get where all of these tracks align with that. Apart from 'I will fall' ... what am I missing here?

[Dog]

Loving the EP after a full week of listening ... (Kaputnik is only tolerable in small doses though and get's the 'skip' treatment often)

So on the theme of 'Modern fascism' as per Neil ... I get where all of these tracks align with that. Apart from 'I will fall' ... what am I missing here?

I think the Modern Fascism concept was ditched, probably at the point they added I will fall.

[ChrisLove]

Skeletons in the closet is great love the vocal especially from 0:58, I will fall is the worst for me but still not that bad. Too bad that Living in the past was not included on cd.

[boyjohn]

A little late, but finally had a chance to listen to the EP a few times while driving around today. A pretty nice group of songs and actually better than what I was expecting, so bravo to the boys. The last 2 song are a bit on the nose, but since I agree totally with the sentiment of them, I am totally fine with that.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Finally taken a listen today. It's pleasant enough. If these songs appeared as unreleased demos on a Further Listening disc, I'd be impressed. Nothing particularly memorable, or life changing, but decent songs nonetheless and I appreciate that we have them.

The only real downsides for me are the Kaputnik vocal sound which wears thin quickly, and the 'crack' sound on The Lost Room which reminds me too much of the sound of a digital CD glitch.

Retro.

[MikeyC]

Annually and the EP arrived in NYC on Monday!! Very excited!!

[NotInvisible]

Nothing particularly memorable

Of course it's going to be different for each person, but I can't get the chorus to Skeletons in the Closet out of my head.

[Old Soak]

Nothing particularly memorable

Of course it's going to be different for each person, but I can't get the chorus to Skeletons in the Closet out of my head.

Same here. When it isn't the theme from The Sopranos.

[dynamobjornen]

Still waiting for the CD to arrive here in Sweden. The plan was to not listen before that, but I finally caved in.

The lost room: The higlight for me, beautiful.
Kaputnik: A bit of fun. Slightly anoying.
Skeletons in the closet. Reminds me of 20 something. A bit of a grover. As someone already said, the chorus is hard to get of your head.
I Will fall: Bland. Leaves 0 impression.