My Complicated Relationship With Bleachers

   In middle school, I discovered what was then an amazing, active band, fun.. I grew to be obsessed with this band, and they were my favorite band for years. They broke up in like 2015, and they still hold a special place in my heart today. One of the members, Jack Antonoff, started a solo side project before fun. broke up called Bleachers. Since fun. broke up, he's still been going strong with Bleachers. And now, with the newest album, it's not even a solo project anymore. Bleachers is now the name of a band of which Jack Antonoff is the lead singer. 

   The first two Bleachers albums are amazing. They're so lively, passionate, and energetic. And while three and four are also good in their own ways, they just don't have the feel of the first two. They took a different direction and started playing a more mellow sound, kinda lo-fi stuff. 

   And look, I've talked before about how people shouldn't be upset at an artist for changing their sound. And that still holds up. Bleachers by all means can and should play the kind of music they want to play, the stuff they have fun making. But, that being said, that doesn't mean I have to pretend I like it as much.

   Their two most recent albums, Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night and the self-titled Bleachers definitely have their strong parts. I'm not going to pretend I don't like these albums at all. I'm actually rather fond of both. But the fact still remains that I am going to choose either of the first two over either of the second two 100% of the time.

   I recently reordered my top twenty bands to be more of an accurate ranking of how much I actually enjoy each one. Bleachers ended up falling out of the top ten, which kinda made me sad to see. I feel like I owe it to them, and to my younger self for his obsession with fun., to keep them a tenured place in the top ten. But for accuracy's sake I can't rank them above bands who have more music that I consistently enjoy more. 

   Though they're out of the ten, Bleachers still has a very strong spot in the twenty. I don't think they're going to lose that - unless they break up (the list is only for active bands, lol). It just sucks that I don't feel the same love for the third and fourth albums that I do for the first and second.

   Bleachers is currently ramping up to this project where they remade the first album, Strange Desire. The remade version is going to be called A Stranger Desired. They're doing a sort of Taylor's Version with it. It's honestly really cool that we're getting to see Jack's solo stuff now done by a band. However, on the other hand, they seem to keeping on this lo-fi kinda trend. They released the remake of "Wild Heart" so far, and honestly the original is just so much better. I listen to music to either get pumped up and/or feel my emotions, not feel like I'm trying to study or go to sleep. And that seems to be the direction Bleachers is going in.

    So, in short, do I still like Bleachers? Absolutely yes. Are their first two albums better than the newer stuff? Also, absolutely yes. Do I wish things were different? Yes. Will I still be following their new releases? Yup. It's not that I *don't like* the new stuff. I just think they were better in the past and wish they were still making that kind of music.