Well, for what it's worth:

I never quite got into Community, but its tone is about my speed. When I'm not reaching for something outright depressing, I'll often go for sardonic humor. I'm kind of a sucker for comedies that lull you into a false sense of security, and then Shit Gets Real.

Ha. I was in a pretty wallowing place in 2005, so a full-length STOMST would've really hit the spot. It's not a popular sentiment, but sometimes… fuck any glimmer or hope or optimism, y'know? Just bring on the brooding dirge of misery. (I say this as someone who tends to immerse myself in depressing media when I'm…

"Demo-itis" they call it, when you get too attached to early, non-studio releases. Sounds like we've both suffered from that to some extent. (I didn't even learn my lesson after Futures. When CTL came around, I realized the only songs I truly hadn't heard in some form already were Always Be and… Here It Goes. In…

I have mixed feelings about Futures. I kinda set myself up for disappointment: having gotten really attached to some live songs performed a good year before the proper release (notably Kill and Nothing Wrong), the album itself came across as over-produced (it isn't). I was pretty grateful for the demos being included…

Honestly, I don't have a single skippable song on Invented. My Best Theory is possibly my favorite single (hard to bump Bleed American for largely sentimental reasons) and the title track is just fucking transcendent. Self-indulgent, sure, but in the best possible way. Mixtape continues the trend of great album…

CTL is an easy, breezy listen that I've warmed up to a bit over the years. But coming on the heels of the heavy Futures (and absolutely brilliant, heavier still Stay on My Side EP) it was… not at all to my tastes as a follow-up. Always Be is indeed lovely, and Big Casino is still high in my rankings of their singles.…

I created a Disqus account just to vehemently agree with this comment. Invented was outrageously overlooked at the time. I figured it would maybe sneak up and grow on people over the years, but if anything, the consensus seems to be indifferent or outright dismissive of that album. Not just their "strongest since"…