Right Song/Wrong Album: Riot Act

[PHATJ]

It needs a Corduroy/Do The Evolution caliber rocker in the middle of the album. You Are is a fine song on its own but its a letdown after the dreariness of Thumbing Way.

That’s TMW’s problem. That’s the boring song. You Are is awesome.

[PHATJ]

Nah.

Cropduster
Can't Keep
Help Help

Reasonable selections, I love all three of those. They fall in line just behind You Aee for me. I’ve always been consistent with that opinion too. You Are has been my favorite since RA came out.

[guitar_davey]

Eliminate

Cropduster
Ghost
Green Disease
Help Help

Replace with

Down
Undone
Last Solider
Other side

Riot Act would have been a 5 star album

Ghost and Green Disease are two of my favourites on the record. GD is probably one of my top 20 PJ songs ever.

[guitar_davey]

Nah.

Cropduster
Can't Keep
Help Help

Can't Keep is one of their best openers IMHO. I love the roomy production and the tension it carries into Save You.

I'm also probably biased because they opened the first PJ show ever in my hometown (St. John's - 2005) with that song and I'll never forget how it set the mood for the entire night.

[7 Years and Maybe Longer]

You Are belongs on Gigaton.

It even sounds like it should fit in as track 2:
Who Ever Said / You Are / Superblood Wolfmoon

[armogi]

Bu$hleaguer tarnished their best album. It sounds horrible. Remove it and you have near perfection.

This. Or replace it with whichever bside.

[Matters]

Riot Act doesn’t need to be altered at all. Even the questionable spoken word in Bushleaguer is worth sitting through to get to the undoubtably awesome “blackout weaves it’s way through the city.”

You Are is my favorite song in the catalog.

[Brett]

I was doing my write-ups for my latest go at the album rankings last week and I was thinking about why Riot Act has slipped so much for me. A lot of it has to do with the pacing, length, and certain timbres used throughout the album. So I started thinking about ways to rearrange it, and also noticed that certain Lost Dogs feel more like Riot Act songs to me, probably due to the two releases being only a year apart ("Sad" and "In the Moonlight"). After kicking the ideas around for a bit, here's what I've come up with:

1. Sad
2. Can't Keep
3. Save You
4. Cropduster
5. Help Help
6. Undone
7. In the Moonlight
8. Arc
9. Love Boat Captain
10. You Are
11. Ghost
12. Get Right
13. 1/2 Full
14. Other Side
15. All or None

I'm toying with the idea of striking "All or None" from the list because I kinda like "Other Side" as a closer and "All or None" doesn't fit anywhere else. It would also make the album a bit shorter, coming in at just under 50 minutes, which is a nice length. where my current 15-track version is about 54 minutes. I like this tracklist because it pulls out some of the clunkier, on the nose political stuff like "Bu$hleaguer" and "Green Disease," as well as the huge momentum killers of "I Am Mine" and "Thumbing My Way." I do like the latter song, but it doesn't fit well and the two together was terrible judgment on the band or producer's part.

[Leatherhead]

I like Bushleaguer, all of it.

[bodysnatcher]

Other Side is such a good song and by far the best of the b-sides. I wish it got plays.

[Monkey_Driven]

Other Side is such a good song and by far the best of the b-sides. I wish it got plays.