New Treat album coming soon

[Tabe]

First run-through, no one particular track has jumped out at me yet but the sound is consistent with the last couple albums.  That's a great thing.  This is, at the very least, a good album, the dumb "Carolina Reaper" song notwithstanding.

[Gotthardline]

Really good album, feels more consistent than the last one.

enjoying it a lot.

[heavyharmonies]

It's "pleasant". Not earth-shattering, not superb, but a consistent effort and very well produced/mixed. Not sure it will have a lot of replay potential for me, but I've only listened through it a few times thus far.

[Mr.AOR]

Gave it a listen yesterday and it's just an ok album.

[KarpetRydOFunk]

Gave it a couple spings yesterday. I love it. "Carolina Reaper" is probably my favourite of the lot, but there aren't any tracks I'd skip. I wonder if this is their last album, as it ends with the same sample they used in the intro to Coup de Grace.

[J.S.M]

I really like their songwriting. It's basically only the voice that I cannot enjoy. There's so much autotune and nothing that sounds cool or transports fun (always very strict to the melody, always the same loudness, bad pronunciation). 

Enough of that....! Rabbit Hole, Sinbiosis, My Parade, Jesus from Hollywood, Magic, to the end of love are damn great songs.

[The Rocker]

2 hours ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Gave it a couple spings yesterday. I love it. "Carolina Reaper" is probably my favourite of the lot, but there aren't any tracks I'd skip. I wonder if this is their last album, as it ends with the same sample they used in the intro to Coup de Grace.

Yes, CR is my favorite also. Just a fun catchy melodic song, and the rest is great.

[Eric3]

On 4/11/2022 at 11:33 AM, J.S.M said:

I really like their songwriting. It's basically only the voice that I cannot enjoy. There's so much autotune and nothing that sounds cool or transports fun (always very strict to the melody, always the same loudness, bad pronunciation). 

Agreed with all of this. Anders Wikstrom is IMO second to none among melodic rock guitarists, especially when it comes to accentuating vocal lines with a tasty guitar lead rather than just a standard chord progression. I don't have a high-level sound system but I'd imagine that Treat's modern material sounds absolutely amazing when the lead guitar has room to breathe.

And yes, the vocals are just subpar these days. They were at least acceptable on Coup de Grace and Ghost of Graceland but were clearly the weak link on those albums too. A shame because the vocal melodies themselves are generally very good.

With that said, I'm still on the fence about getting this album. It seems fine but not many songs have grabbed me on multiple listens. Cheers to Frontiers for uploading the full album to YouTube, makes it a lot easier to decide.

[Glen]

not even listened to it yet.

😒

[Geoff]

Finally got to this today. Pure quality, as always. 

I understand concerns about it being a bit by-the-numbers, but it's all quality. Randomly, I found myself thinking of countryman Goran Edman a few times, in terms of the lyrics. It's a fine line for me. I like different and a bit strange when it comes to lyrics - it's the shit I used to pen in darkened rooms... but I like for it to come together somehow. There's a few songs on this that are great, but I find myself asking what exactly they're talking about. But it's cool. Credit to them for trying to mix it up a bit... but I wouldn't be sad with some lyrics I could connect with a tad more. 

Anyway, immaculate in every technical regard and impossible to not enjoy. Early favourite tunes would be 'My Parade' and 'Wake Me When It's Over.' 

[tts42572]

25 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Finally got to this today. Pure quality, as always. 

I understand concerns about it being a bit by-the-numbers, but it's all quality. Randomly, I found myself thinking of countryman Goran Edman a few times, in terms of the lyrics. It's a fine line for me. I like different and a bit strange when it comes to lyrics - it's the shit I used to pen in darkened rooms... but I like for it to come together somehow. There's a few songs on this that are great, but I find myself asking what exactly they're talking about. But it's cool. Credit to them for trying to mix it up a bit... but I wouldn't be sad with some lyrics I could connect with a tad more. 

Anyway, immaculate in every technical regard and impossible to not enjoy. Early favourite tunes would be 'My Parade' and 'Wake Me When It's Over.' 

What you mention about connecting to the songs/lyrics has been my problem with it.

If I just toss it on and don't really listen to it, it sounds fine musically as there's some great melodies.  But when I really listen to it, I don't find myself getting into the songs much and half the time I'm scratching my head wondering what they're getting on about.  There's just some odd lyrics and subjects.

For me, this one feels a bit behind the previous 3 albums if I'm ranking them.

[Jez]

This is fast becoming my favourite Treat album ever.

[Geoff]

18 hours ago, Jez said:

This is fast becoming my favourite Treat album ever.

Massive call. As I was listening to it for the first time, and genuinely enjoying it, I was thinking how far removed it is from the utterly flawless 'Organized Crime.' 

I'm not say it's bad by comparison at all - they're just such different albums and on an individual sum of all its parts, as well as a complete album, I easily prefer 'Organized Crime' in every single regard. 

Amazing band, amazing discography... But 'Organized Crime' is in my all time top 10 albums... I absolutely know with 100% conviction that I will never say that about this great new album. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Geoff

[Jez]

On 4/21/2022 at 9:41 AM, Geoff said:

Massive call. As I was listening to it for the first time, and genuinely enjoying it, I was thinking how far removed it is from the utterly flawless 'Organized Crime.' 

I'm not say it's bad by comparison at all - they're just such different albums and on an individual sum of all its parts, as well as a complete album, I easily prefer 'Organized Crime' in every single regard. 

Amazing band, amazing discography... But 'Organized Crime' is in my all time top 10 albums... I absolutely know with 100% conviction that I will never say that about this great new album. 

As much as I love their 80's output, 'Dreamhunter' and 'Organized Crime' especially, the later 4 discs are so much more 'My Thing' nowadays and the ones I go to first. Obviously the songwriting is great throughout their career, but it all sounds so much bigger and powerful when played back to back with the older stuff.... definitely a case of improved production methods overall. Much the same as with all the Pretty Maids stuff, where I go for everything from 'Wake Up To The Real World' first. 

[AlphaMale]

On 4/18/2022 at 12:16 PM, Glen said:

not even listened to it yet.

😒

What are you waiting for?

Edited April 22, 2022 by AlphaMale

[Glen]

4 minutes ago, AlphaMale said:

What are you waiting for?

can't get excited about it. 

[AlphaMale]

Just now, Glen said:

can't get excited about it. 

Understood. It's solid but replay value is pretty non-existent. 

[KarpetRydOFunk]

2 hours ago, AlphaMale said:

Understood. It's solid but replay value is pretty non-existent. 

Interesting. I can't seem to stop replaying it. 

[Geoff]

4 hours ago, Jez said:

As much as I love their 80's output, 'Dreamhunter' and 'Organized Crime' especially, the later 4 discs are so much more 'My Thing' nowadays and the ones I go to first. Obviously the songwriting is great throughout their career, but it all sounds so much bigger and powerful when played back to back with the older stuff.... definitely a case of improved production methods overall. Much the same as with all the Pretty Maids stuff, where I go for everything from 'Wake Up To The Real World' first. 

Interestingly enough, production-wise, I thought 'Organized Crime' was one of the first albums with a beefy production from it's time that easily stands side to side with today's output. Firehouse is another band that comes to mind, production-wise. But I actually much prefer the overall sound/production of 'Organized Crime' to recent Treat, and that's from me, as someone pretty particular about production jobs.

[auslander]

I know it is the same band but I almost feel Treat are a part i and part ii proposition due to the eras separated by a number of years. If I had to choose, I probably like part i the best, but only just.

[Kourosofsteel4]

Sadly, that's the 2nd album from a beloved band  that I won't buy, but, I'm assuming , they have to meet their contractual obligations (releasing X albums in a Z period of time). Hopefully, my beloved Zero Hour won't face the same fate... 

[Mr.AOR]

9 hours ago, AlphaMale said:

Understood. It's solid but replay value is pretty non-existent. 

Agree, for me it's just a Mehhhh sort of album.

[Glen]

First spin

wasn't keen on Home of the brave, my parade or Dark to Light, otherwise really great. Liked it a lot.

I'm also with Jez the early stuff hasn't aged well imo and this and Coup are Streets ahead imho

[AlphaMale]

Coup and Ghost were played by me for months and months after first spin. These last two Treat albums have only gotten marginal replays. 

[AlphaMale]

This is a good solid typical Treat album but the lyrics and quality of the songs themselves are just not quite to the level of their recent output. Nobody expects another Coup De Grace from them, but somewhere between GoG and CDG would be perfect. The last 2 discs have just not been to the level IMO. Still good solid stuff but not as memorable. 

I rated Tunguska 76% and this album 79% so I still like it and think it's good stuff.