Old fan coming back round for a loop
Was quite a fan back in the day, and owned all of their albums on CD from Gordon through All in Good Time.
When Steven left, I briefly blamed him, and continued trying to follow BNL without him. In the end, I haven't found myself able to really enjoy the band's music post-Steven, minus a couple songs, so I often forget about them.
It's been a few years since I last listened to them, but today I saw an Eminem interview from 2010 where he talked about rhyming "orange" and mentioned "4-inch" and "door hinge" and I was like, holy shit, either Em influenced BNL or BNL influenced Em, and either way that's hilarious and awesome :D Anyway, it reminded me of BNL and so...
...today I'm listening through as much of their discography as I'll manage - I'm currently starting up Stunt, and I've got a few thoughts collecting:
These guys were always so very, very talented. Tyler's drumming always managed to perfectly fit any vibe, Jim is a very creative bassist who really plays with the music, and Ed and Steven complemented each other so very much vocally - that said, Jim wasn't the best singer, and Ed may be more blessed with creativity than with actual musical talent, but that's totally ok ;)
I hated Jim's songs when I was a teen, I guess because I hated his voice, but I'm finding myself really liking them today. He had a very, very interesting writing style, and while I would skip these tracks back then, now I wish we had more! I guess they stopped having him write songs because they wanted commercial success and Jim's songs were never going to achieve that, but it's honestly kind of a pity imo!
Almost all of my favourite songs are turning out to be Steven songs...? I think - maybe I'm wrong. But it's Wrap Your Arms Around Me, What a Good Boy, Box Set, and The Flag from Gordon; You Will be Waiting, Am I the Only One? (I think this is the only Ed one?), and The Wrong Man was Convicted from Drive; This is Where it Ends, When I Fall (oh, another Ed one!), I Live With it Every Day, and Break Your Heart from Pirate Ship...
I am going to try to listen through all their albums, but in the past I've never been able to listen all the way through anything after All in Good Time... and I'm wondering if this is connected to point 3... but I really wonder, because I like almost all of their songs on all the albums they were all together with Steven - no real skips I think!
I cannot wait for Maroon, my favourite BNL album <3 <3 <3
