It looks like The Branches is available for pre-order via many stores now. Those song titles are so great. I'm really excited.
I got excited when itunes gave me the option to preview the songs, but clearly the wrong audio is linked with the previews. Half of them sound chinese. There were no lyrics for a while on track 1, and I was thinking, "Man, Ben's really going in a different direction with this."
I heard the real previews on iTunes... and... my word. So different from The Roots and so similar at the same time. So far, it is wonderful.
You're right! It's been changed now. Well too bad you missed out on the chinese pop rendition of The Branches. I'm about to check all these tracks out.
Does anyone know if Ben is going to put the Branches up for pre-order in his web store? Like have a pre-order deal like with the Roots? If so, I'll totally hold off on pre-ordering until then.
Hey Ben been away for a while, just getting caught up and so excited about the new album Can't believe your dental woes dude, hope you are recovering well. I'm coming here like ''aw man I feel so sorry for myself cos I got a tooth out a month ago" and then I read your experience... ouch. Man tooth pain is the worst, it dominates your every waking moment! But then you know that, haha. Anyway glad you are happy with the album, very much looking forward to it I'll look out for the CD in the webstore, is there any ETA on that? I'll get the itunes download too, cos I'm cool like that (and impatient heh) And get some rest! haha
Woooo! I haven't really been thinking much about Branches, and now suddenly it seems just around the corner. Very exciting! I know its a strange thing to say, but the song titles are making me excited for Branches even more. Especially 'Crooked Kind', could be running along the same vein as Always Gold maybe? Yeh, I'm also wondering about this. The amazon pre-order looks pretty good but I don't want to commit to it yet in case of a special offer on the webstore as you said. Guess I'll just wait and see.
Agreed! I listened through the preview half a dozen times and have already got a couple of favorites. The Mute is amazing, but I think Holy Branches will be the song of the album. I'm a big Shins fan, and can really hear that magical quality the Shins manage to capture coming through that track. I think the stylistic variation between tracks is really quite impressive also. Each track seems to be it's own unique entity without ever sounding out of place. Can't wait for the release
It certainly feels magical even with the short snippet of each song. The Crooked Kind is my favorite thus far.
Is it through Itunes you are hearing these snippets? I had a look but they seemed to be all grey/faded out for me, including the play buttons.
It's still working for me on itunes. And I wasn't joking about songs from a random Chinese artist being linked up to the track names. It was weird. About halfway through, it finished up the album with some American gal singer-songwriter. Everything seems normal now and the play buttons are working for me.
Haha, I imagine it would have been quite a shock before you realized they were the wrong songs! It could be either my itunes or maybe a Europe/U.S difference? Dunno. I'm not sure if I'd want to listen to all of the previews anyway, seeing you don't really get to hear the full story, but I guess it would be good to get a feel for the album.
I wanted to hold out on listening to the snippets because the albums in their entirety are so much better than any one song, but I couldn't resist! Haha. Now I'm even more excited for The Branches. So sad you can't access them, hughesypf, but I promise- it doesn't seem like Ben will disappoint us Hope touring goes well for you, Ben!
I didn't realize iTunes did previews. I should probably pay attention to these things more. But yeah, each installment in this set is supposed to be a bit of a leap forward, but hopefully still feel related. Or that's what I'm trying to do, at least. We'll see if it translates. And sorry on the delays with the Bastards. I think Spotify has offered to do a little feature on it, which is neat for getting more people to check out the project, but we're waiting for that to get set up. Either way, it will be out next week. One way or another. Trying to shoot a music video this week (I normally have 3 instead of 1 ... stupid surgery), and get all the merch together for the US shows. Gonna be a busy couple months. But I can eat solid food again, so I'm not too phased now. I become a nihilist when I'm hungry.
