Have avoided all leaks after the "listening party". I can reminisce easy enough. When I get the album, I want it fresh.

That said, the chorus for Lucky Animals sporadically pops in my mind when I least expect it. To amuse myself, I've taken to singing it but replacing the L in Lucky with F.

Well I gave up, and lisened the stream ..did not blow my mind, but will wait for the physical copy so I can blast it loudly in my stereo!..but Save Our Now, damn DAMN!!!!that's one catchy song!!LOVE IT!!! Hope they play it live on tour

As always, my impatience caused me to download the leak...

I really like this album, but it took me some time to appreciate it. Poppy as hell, but also a mindfuck to realise Devin made this! Again, it is so different... Although most of the songs are really beautiful and overwhelming, it doesn't excite me that much as the recent DTP quartet did.

Anyway, awesomeness still prevails!

To clear this up, I deleted the post and this was made immediately and abundantly clear to Liampie via a brief PM discussion. The post was deleted as it was a one word insult post. I also made it clear at that time that my deleting the post had zero to do with the discussion which led to the deleted post, which I frankly have little interest in either way. Regardless, a one word insult is not an argument, a point, or any other form of valid discussion. My apologies for any confusion caused by not making this more clear to other forum users.

And hey, just a personal request... if someone tells you they didn't delete a post, perhaps you could consider believing them, rather than jumping to conclusions.

Now, back to Epicloud!

I see. I apologize, Octillus, the wording of the post made it seem to me (And others, apparently..) that you were being sarcastic. Fuckin' text, huh?

Now back to Epicloud. d:

I just listened to it all back to front and I enjoyed it, I mean, comparing it with the prior releases in the project undermines the actual album because Addicted (which featured Anneke, a bit more heavily) was, for me, one of Dev's best records (Numbered! still gives me goosebumps) but they are kind of similar tonally which makes it easy to compare. Epicloud is quite patchy in comparison to his previous work, but as a stand alone album, it's decent. A solid release. We've all been overwhelmed by all the music he's thrown at us over the past couple of years.

My complaints I guess that in the first half of the album, it all seems a bit ill-structured, Lucky Animals seems forced in, Where We Belong is kind of average, True North is a bit chaotic structurally, Effervescent is kind of pointless? The self-congratulating laughter and stuff at the end of Liberation is kind of cringey too, I've edited it out on my itunes...but then you have Grace, Angel, More!, Kingdom, Hold On and the gorgeous interlude, Lessons in the latter of the album which are just mind bogglingly beautiful. The best songs on the album are the ones Anneke is more heavily involved in which is unsurprising.

Hard to be disappointed though when you consider that no other artist offers his fans such consistent brilliance though, we are all lucky animals!

All in all, by no means a perfect release. Epiclouder was more interesting. They will still both be blaring my stereos for a few weeks/months etc

omg it's Dan-Wah.

Yes it is! Letting my inner critic overtake my inner fanboy in that post!

Has anyone else tried to make an Epicloud 'master track list' with songs from Epiclouder? I love the idea of adding tracks to the original album to completely change the feel of the album.

Has anyone heard the vinyl bonus track entitled "Epicloud" yet? Just wondering. Thanks

Has anyone else tried to make an Epicloud 'master track list' with songs from Epiclouder? I love the idea of adding tracks to the original album to completely change the feel of the album.

I haven't yet, but I think Woah No! would go great after More or Kingdom.

Can I ask a valid question in response to the C is For Cookie post above...

How can any one here, in this forum, possibly attempt to accuse Devin of "making something that just sounds thrown together"?

Just sayin, Dev can spill coffee and it would sound better and more original than anything anyone here could put together.

Effervescent is pointless? Really....so him putting it at the end of the album and the end of True North is pointless also? Someone needs to get this kid the Listening Party so you can hear Dev's insight on the thing. I think you're completely missing the point of the idea of the album.

[Octillus]

Can I ask a valid question in response to the C is For Cookie post above...

How can any one here, in this forum, possibly attempt to accuse Devin of "making something that just sounds thrown together"?

Just sayin, Dev can spill coffee and it would sound better and more original than anything anyone here could put together.

Effervescent is pointless? Really....so him putting it at the end of the album and the end of True North is pointless also? Someone needs to get this kid the Listening Party so you can hear Dev's insight on the thing. I think you're completely missing the point of the idea of the album.

Well, for what it's worth, I think everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don't entirely agree with C is for Cupcake, and I always enjoy motif pieces like effervescent, but not everything works for everybody. Ghost didn't work for everybody, and some people here HATED Deconstruction irrationally due to "bathroom noises." We just have to respect that not everyone's going to approach this material the same.

I understand he's going for a bright syrupy sweet pop metal album, I found it too saccharine in places, so I enjoy the hell out of it, but I'm not nearly as enthralled with it as I've been in the past. Epiclouder on the other hand tickles that Terria itch I've had for some time, and I enjoy it more. Doesn't really make me any more or less of a fan, same with C.

To put it another way, how many of you regularly listen to and love DevLab? And those that do, how many of you really expect everyone who likes Devin to be in love with it?

Exactly.

Has anyone else tried to make an Epicloud 'master track list' with songs from Epiclouder? I love the idea of adding tracks to the original album to completely change the feel of the album.

Yes, I did. I made the album more romantic, like I expected Epicloud to be. I didn't put too much effort in the track order... The Epicloud tracks are still in order, and I added in the Epiclouder tracks wherever I thought they would fit best.

1. Effervescent!
2. True North
3. Happy Birthday
4. Liberation
5. Where We Belong
6. Save Our Now
7. Heatwave
8. Love Tonight
9. Grace
10. Love and Marriage
11. Lessons
12. Hold On
13. Angel

I don't necessay dislike the songs I excluded, I just thought this would be the most cohesive album, when aiming for a romantic atmosphere.

Can I ask a valid question in response to the C is For Cookie post above...

How can any one here, in this forum, possibly attempt to accuse Devin of "making something that just sounds thrown together"?

Just sayin, Dev can spill coffee and it would sound better and more original than anything anyone here could put together.

Effervescent is pointless? Really....so him putting it at the end of the album and the end of True North is pointless also? Someone needs to get this kid the Listening Party so you can hear Dev's insight on the thing. I think you're completely missing the point of the idea of the album.

I understand what you're saying. I love the guy, like, genuinely adore his music, but it's kind of patronising to undermine someone's opinion like you just have. I didn't hear the listening party but not every artist has the luxury to tell all of his or her listeners what the intentions of their work were. We go off what we hear, right? I'm a writer, and if I could include a paragraph under everything I've written explaining my intentions then it would make everything less interesting. I love how close Dev is with his fans, it was just my knee-jerk reaction to hearing the album. Did I slate it? Nope. I would be undermining my own opinion, and Devin in a way to praise everything he does.

I have the dtp logo tattooed on my arm by the way. And The Death of Music is my favourite song of all time. I'm just a guy with an opinion and Dev is a guy making music and this is a public forum.

Differing opinions makes for more diverse conversation anyway.

Here's my controversial opinion: Epicloud may not be album #1 of the year for me. Too many other albums that have been released that I've connected to more. It will be in my top 10 though, of that I'm sure.