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It's been over two months since the album came out and I've had it on repeat since then, I think it's been enough to time to have better opinions formed since then. I really love the album and it's one of the those cases where the ranking will always be changing regardless of how much time has passed.

1. God In My Head

2. House Of Matches

3. Process

4. Looking Back At Me

5. Forever/Always

6. Paralyzed

7. Need You Here

8. An Ending In Itself

9. Left On Repeat

10. Waiting For You

11. Storm Clouds

12. PTSD

Keep in mind I love every single song on this album, PTSD imo is the only song that's not like an 8/10 but is still pretty close to that, it could very much grow on me like Forever/Always did, but yk this is one of those albums where you just feel like listening to any of the songs on it at random moments and wouldn't be disappointed. It's definitely my favourite album from SWS, surpassing even How It Feels To Be Lost. I could do a proper review.

This can go for both the instrumental itself or simply just the sound mix as that heavily affects how each show sounds.

Big fan of Cologne 1997, even as an amateur recording it sounds absolutely amazing, Bremen May 31st has one of the best sounding snare on an MJ show, Basel 1997 is also up there as it has that same high snare. I also love Brisbane 1987, Oviedo 1992 and Moscow 1993.

Real hot takes, not stuff like Wembley 88 overrated or HIStory Tour bad, some real Hot takes that would set not just casual fans on fire but even the elite MJ Performances enthusiats.

I'll drop mine: Bad Tour and HIStory Tour are even in terms of how good the vocals are, and I'll explain why. Bad Tour has an amazing beginning for the vocals, 1987 is inarguably the best period for MJ live vocals, however as we get to the first US leg it's a massive downhill, Kansas and NYC are good enough but he gets laryngitis shortly after in ST. Louis and afterwards he's always sick and strained vocally, like he only starts to recover vocally towards the end of the europe leg. So like August-September 1988, and by then his vocals are still strained from all the touring. Obviously there are gems like Cologne and Wembley July 22nd but it's mostly below what you'd expect, then he gets laryngitis again in the second US leg. Then the HIStory Tour has a really rough 1996 leg, it starts off fine enough, sounds really good from Moscow to Amsterdam, then he gets sick in Tunis-Seoul, sounding horrible on October 11th, but sounds pretty good on October 13th and Kaohsiung, the Kuala Lumpur shows, especially October 29th sounds really good, then in November it's just like March/April 1988 where MJ has laryngitis, and yea he sounds really rough until like Tokyo December 13th where he sounds really good again like Kuala Lumpur, then Fukuoka to Honolulu sounds really great and 1997 is consistently amazing, kinda like 1987, with the exception of the second Munich show. 1997 by all means has way better sounding vocals on average than 1988. 1996 is just a bit rougher than 1988. And 1989 is like at the same level as 1997. But 1987 is way better than 1997 and 1996 vocally. That's what makes it even.

Just thought about doing it, don't ask much questions, actually do I'm bored asf. Also this is only shows where we have most of the show available to watch, whether through amateur or pro footage. Shows like Hockenheim and Leipzig I don't count as they don't have enough footage for me to count them as most. Shows with only amateur audio or pro snippets don't count for obvious reasons.

1. Milan 1997

2. Amsterdam June 8th 1997

3. Gelsenkirchen 1997

4. Tokyo December 13th 1996

5. Basel 1997

6. Zaragoza 1996

7. Kuala Lumpur October 27th 1996

8. Honolulu January 4th 1997

9. Cologne 1997

10. Manila December 10th 1996

10 Lausanne 1997

11. Wembley July 17th 1997

12. Wembley July 15th 1997

13. Kuala Lumpur October 29th 1996

14. Wembely July 12th 1997

15. Moscow 1996

16. Amsterdam June 10th 1997

17. Brunei 1996

18. Kaohsiung 1996

19. Dublin 1997

20. Gothenburg 1997

21. Auckland November 11th

22. Sydney November 16th

23. Tunis 1996

24. Seoul October 13th 1996

25. Helsinki August 26th 1997

26. Budapest 1996

27. Munich July 4th 1997

28. Bucharest 1996

29. Copenhagen August 14th 1997

30. Munich July 6th 1997

31. Auckland November 9th 1996

32. Seoul October 11th 1996

33. Vienna 1997

34. Ostend 1997

35. Copenhagen August 29th 1997

36. Johannesburg October 12th 1997

37. Prague 1996

I wonder if anyone feels or has felt that way before. I legit couldn't listen to the original version of Scream because of how used I was to the live version which is shorter, and Janet's parts are replaced by MJ's vocal takes. So whenever I listened to the original I found it so strange whenever I heard Janet. Also Brunei 96 still sounds weird with the edited in mic feed, why did they do that? MJ couldn't hear himself no wonder he sounds poor.

This album was just surprises after surprises to me, like the album takes so many twists and turns in the best way possible, imo it's probably the best Sleeping With Sirens album by a really long shot. It feels so different yet there are times where it feels like the songs could've come in prior albums. I definitely hear how Haunted Mouths affected this album, and it's honestly for the best. The 4 year wait was honestly worthy. My favourites would probably be God In My Head, Need You Here, House of Matches and Process. I loved the singles, especially the title track, but these absolutely top it. There's only one song I wasn't fully fond of and it was PTSD which I thought was going to be really heavy but seems like Paralyzed is where it peaks heaviness wise (sorry for the spoiler for those who haven't heard it) but yeah this is easily a 10/10 album first listen. I'll see how my opinion changes with time

By sirensmaxing I mean listen to every album front to back in preparation of the release of An Ending In Itself and generally just consuming a lot more SWS content than usual.

Anyone else preparing themselves for the next album?