Manchester Orchestra: Mean Everything to Nothing (180g, blue swirl vinyl) [FAVORITE GENTLEMEN]

Why you'll love it

This pressing comes on 180g blue swirl vinyl. The album debuted at No. 37 on the Billboard 200 and No. 11 on the Rock Albums chart, and Alternative Press gave it a perfect five out of five.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Blue swirl vinyl

About the album

Atlanta's Manchester Orchestra made this as a young band on the rise, and it sounds like a band that has suddenly realized how big it can get. Andy Hull's songs had always been raw and confessional; here, with Joe Chiccarelli and Dan Hannon producing, they gained real muscle and scale, and the band put it out on their own Favorite Gentlemen label.

The record bursts in with crunching guitars, "Shake It Out" swings between whisper and roar, and lead single "I've Got Friends" is a fist-in-the-air anthem with a sticky little hook. "Pride" and "I Can Feel a Hot One" slow everything down to a hush, "My Friend Marcus" and "Tony the Tiger" show Hull's knack for a story, and "The River" closes with a slow-building swell. Spin and AbsolutePunk premiered the early videos, and the buzz around the band had been building for nearly three years by the time it landed.

AbsolutePunk's Jason Tate opened his review by telling the rest of 2009's albums that the bar had been set, and Paste admired how it stayed dark and serious while going for the big rock record. The band name promises an orchestra; the record delivers something considerably louder.

Also at Kops: more Manchester Orchestra on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Favorite Gentlemen / Canvasback (cat# 88697 3594 1), a reissue of the 2009 album.