2020: The New Album

I can't recall the last time I've come into this forum. Maybe early 2018?

Regarding the album, I totally avoided every snippet, reviews, and most singles. I've only heard Unbroken and Limitless before.

My biggest fear was because of the name "2020", I feared that Jon (because of what he seemed to be looking for this album) would make me hard to relate with the songs and therefore like them. Also for some reason I was worried he would shift to a more Springsteen-like sound.

The night it got released I opened up Spotify, grabbed a cup of tea and heard it. On the first listen, I think it's OK. I can't say that I love it as a whole and I don't know how long it's going to be on my daily playlist but...

For my surprise, the songs I like the most are one of the most socially conscious one, the one that takes one of the biggest American issues, and the one that literally starts like a Springsteen song: Blood in the Water, Lower the Flag and Let it Rain. Those 3 songs one after the other are the climax of the album and have been playing them nonstop since the release, also, these 3 made me glad that my favourite band is still putting out music. And I really mean it, Blood on the Water is a masterpiece, I absolutely love it and I know it's supposed to speak about migrants but I have found it my own meaning, related to our local politics specially to the lyrics:

I'm no cable news reporter
They got nothing new to say
I'm the voice of the new order
The star of Anarchy Today
I'm the comments you keep reading
At the bottom of the page
I'm real power, I'm a patriot

The rest of the record doesn't do anything for me yet, though I can totally see Beautiful Drug growing on me eventually. I think Do What You Can is a unnecessary thing in this album, could have been just a single... also, most of the singles are "meh" (Limitless is as generic as you can get it and Unbroken is boring).

I've read some of you speaking a lot about Story of Love and Brothers in Arms. I don't like the latter one at all, I skip it every time it comes, and the first one... I like the concept but I don't think it comes out on the best way, it has some really great moments and some really cringeworthy ones.

Overall, I liked way more This House is not For Sale than this. But, as I said before, I'm just glad we got 3 great songs. I'm going to give it some time before I rate it on the rating thread, will probably hear everything again during the weekend and come with a more formed opinion. Something I forgot to say before is that I really like the fact that Jon's voice doesn't sound digitally edited, so kudos to that. The overall mixing sounds better and more organic, even though it lacks some "punch" in some songs but most of the album really benefits from this sound.

Also, I just got the Digital Release version and I have to say this, the Spotify version is crap. I don't know if it's like this on all the streaming releases but I swear to god I'm listening to stuff that I could not hear on the Spotify one (and I play always at 320 kbps). I'm sure the record companies are giving a poor quality audio source to stream because it's not the first time I've seen this happen, but in this actual record I think it takes away part of the experience.

------------

Another different thing regarding the two bonus tracks as I've only heard them once as I just realised they existed. I loved them at the first listen, specially Luv Can. I think the record should have been released as it was supposed to originally, with these two songs.

Really? You've been away this long? Gee, how time flies...

For me, this (and the "russian hack by trade" line especially) is Jon's description of Trump. But let's not delve into politics here...

Funny that people keep saying this. About the only thing I like from THINFS is the title track, Rollercoaster and Born Again Tomorrow. Maybe Come On Up To Our House. But the rest all just reminds me of the clusterf*ck that is the whole Richie saga, and I therefor cannot relate to those songs (Living With The Ghost, All Hail The King, etc.)

Has anyone seen any promotion in the UK? Apart from radio 2 interview and it being album of the week (a track played each day between 10.30am & 12), I've not seen anything. I've seen TV ads for Queen on one of the music tv channels.

I know Jon can't exactly travel over for a week as he usually does, but some TV spots would help

Maybe the the session when they played the album live?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Are you sure they played the whole album in the end? I find it strange since David Bryan was not available for this.

I hope to get more bonus songs as it happened with THINFS.

Do What You Can on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

I have no idea


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

would he be ready for a double album?

2020 is to be entering at 20th place on its first week charts on US.

Will it be their worst entrance on the US charts? Will Jon abandon the album, as it already tanked?

https://hitsdailydouble.com/news&id=...-OF-THE-TOP-20

He has material enough.. I hope he is

Ouch, though to be honest I think that's pretty much around the placing that THINFS would have got if not for being bundled with the tickets.