Side Project Song Election - Box Car Racer

[Jan Mortensen]

latnemurtsni

[Kay]

I legit dont think I can vote in this much. like I'm still gonna say All Systems Go for now but... I love them all, I'm offended at all votes, this album is near perfect. 

[Champ182]

OOOF this album rules. I guess I'll go with Instrumental now, but with some vocals in there it could've become a classic as well.

[zzzz]

I know where pretty much everyone stands in regards to fav blink albums/era/etc, but what's the word on BCR vs. +44? Love them both but I'll take +44 all day... 

[Patient #48273]

I thought BCR was the best thing ever when the album came out, but I find it to be only okay now, other than a few songs that remain favourites.

[Speedo]

2 minutes ago, Patient #48273 said:

I thought BCR was the best thing ever when the album came out, but I find it to be only okay now, other than a few songs that remain favourites.

Same... I don't remember the last time I listened to it... Probably wasn't that long ago but it didn't stay with me. 

[Kay]

46 minutes ago, Ry-Bread said:

I know where pretty much everyone stands in regards to fav blink albums/era/etc, but what's the word on BCR vs. +44? Love them both but I'll take +44 all day... 

BCR is still in my top 5 albums of all time list. It has it's faults (mostly lyrically) but I adore it from start to finish and still do. it hit me at just the right time, and it's probably the gateway drug that got me into more miserable shit musically. 

I like +44, took to it a bit more in a "fuck you Tom I side with Mark" kind of a way, but I think there's a lot more weaknesses on that record, I return to it a lot less, and there's not a skippable song on BCR for me, there's quite a few on WYHSB. 

I do like WYHSB though, and I put it above basically all AVA records. 

[JarJarBlinks]

Instrumental

I think this album is the best work Tom has ever done. 

[Ghent]

Instrumental

[Jan Mortensen]

1 hour ago, Ry-Bread said:

I know where pretty much everyone stands in regards to fav blink albums/era/etc, but what's the word on BCR vs. +44? Love them both but I'll take +44 all day... 

They're pretty equal.  It's prime Mark and prime Tom doing their one branch off thing from blink.  If say BCR has no skips but +44 has just as many highs.  Like Lycanthrope and Lillian are as good as anything on BCR.

I miss these days, wish they each had one more good 'solo' album in them.

[Jan Mortensen]

36 minutes ago, JarJarBlinks said:

Instrumental

I think this album is the best work Tom has ever done. 

I'd say Untitled because it had the pressure to deliver, averted our expectations, and had more variety.  BCR is peak Tom but is pretty 'samey'.

It was less group effort than Dude Ranch-TOYPAJ too.

[boxelder]

2 hours ago, Ry-Bread said:

I know where pretty much everyone stands in regards to fav blink albums/era/etc, but what's the word on BCR vs. +44? Love them both but I'll take +44 all day... 

BCR is good. a fun listen from start to finish. that said, it's not nearly as indebted to the acts he described -- little on it sounds like fugazi. it's got some of my favorite songs he ever wrote, like and i or there is. but basically, the whole thing is tom just experimenting with darker-sounding riffs, which is great, but there's no reason he couldn't have done this with mark. altogether, its existence feels like a lapse in communication between the two, mainly on tom's part. some of the lyrics are can be very stupid on BCR ("the government is lyyyyyinggggg"), and it's got plenty of instances where tom relies on his old adolescent perspective ("16 long years in..."/16 chapters of one thing you've blown"), which is funny, because that's what he claimed was boxing him in on TOYPAJ. leads one to think he just didn't want to include mark, or was beginning to let fame change him.

WYHSB holds up better for me because it IS slightly more offbeat than what BCR was publicized as. it's mark's darkest, most vulnerable career moment, but still well-rounded as an album. from the saddest songs (no it isn't) to the happiest (chapter 13), it also includes an all-time mark classic (cliff diving). travis kills that shit more than he does on BCR, and the electronic sound is an interesting approach that was unusual for then.

i mean, BCR:

I saw Virginia, get rid of Langley / And its secrets too / I held your hand, and sat there knowing / That we'd make it through / I saw this man dispose of hunger / And soap operas too

WYHSB:

I left it all behind in the dead of last winter / I left it all behind but the question still lingers / So long, forgotten friends, no, you don't know the difference / Between love and submission, and I'm not that obedient

no question!

[Marik]

Somebody go meet travis and ask him, as the only member of each band, which album does he like more

[Coightstradamus]

Instrumental 

[Champ182]

Tone of the music - Box Car Racer - Like @Kay said about getting into miserable music haha, this was a definite bridge for me between mostly being obsessed with Blink and So Cal punk type stuff to discovering and loving sadder/deeper indie rock. The melodies are very "pretty" and sad, the dynamics are dramatic, most of the songs are both huge and quiet, the drums are incredible. Hugely influential for me in the music I would go onto love listening to and writing later on.

Lyrics - +44 - BCR just has a few too many clunkers or immature moments that don't match the greatness of the music. Mark was clearly focusing on the meaning and poetry and personal expression of his lyrics on +44, and he pulled that off much better than Tom. 

Relistenable quality - Box Car Racer. I don't know why, I just never really revisit +44 but every time I randomly decide to put BCR on I end up listening to the entire album.

Overall Box Car Racer wins for me, it might have been the timing it might have been any number of things, I just really love this album and +44 is more of a footnote in my personal musical taste history.

[Champ182]

4 hours ago, boxelder said:

it's not nearly as indebted to the acts he described -- little on it sounds like fugazi. it's got some of my favorite songs he ever wrote, like and i or there is. but basically, the whole thing is tom just experimenting with darker-sounding riffs, which is great, but there's no reason he couldn't have done this with mark. altogether, its existence feels like a lapse in communication between the two, mainly on tom's part.

100% agree with all of this. 

[Nosferatu]

Sorrow

[Thomas D.]

Instrumental 

[vic vinegar]

Instrumental 

[yodda]

Instrumental takes 12th place and is all like
e|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|------------888------------999-------------------------------------------------------|
D|-22222-888-22222-999-22222-666-22222-777------------------|
A|-22222-666-22222-777-22222-666-22222-777-------------------|
E|-00000---------00000--------00000-444-00000-555-------------------|

Here are the remaining songs off Box Car Racer:

I Feel So
All Systems Go
Watch the World
Tiny Voices
Cat Like Thief
And I
Letters to God
Sorrow
There Is
The End with You
Elevator