Listened to FII this week for the first time in a long time. Great record. I skip Hollow Years and Take Away My Pain but the rest rules.
Absolutely love the rest with the exception of BMS, which I do still enjoy.
The slightly chilled, slightly jazzy, rocky vibe was very cool on this album.
I don't go back to FII as often as I used to. But I love that record. As my wife pointed out about a week ago (after she listened to it again), it's the last album by DT that she really felt the band let the songs breathe. I absolutely agree. I love Trial of Tears, Anna Lee, Hell's Kitchen and Lines in the Sand a LOT. All of those are top-tier DT to me. I think I'm in the minority on "You Not Me" because I prefer it over the demo of "You Or Me" by a wide margin.
Like Stads, I also like "Cover My Eyes" but I feel it doesn't mesh with the album itself. Overall, I prefer the album as it was released.
Very much agree with this. Not only do the songs breathe, but the album has a ton of cool songwriting ideas. Granted, not
all of them successful, but despite all that was going on during that time, with the pressure and such, I do feel this is still a record from a "hungry" band. It was a time when you weren't quite sure what to expect from a DT record as you dropped the needle (figuratively) on it. Love the sound, love MP's performance on it.
I feel similarly to you about You Not Me vs. You Or Me, although I wish they had kept the melodic mid-section that was on the demo. Really like that one. But, yes, I like the chorus on the album version better. In terms of the excluded songs: I have said it before - I would have liked to hear Raise The Knife with the album production - I think it's a cool combo of DT's technical approach and the more stripped down sound of the FII era. And I have a soft spot for the U2/The Cure vibe of Speak To Me. Burning My Soul is easily my least favorite tune on the album, so I would have happily swapped it for one of those.
New Millennium, Peruvian Skies, and (especially) Hell's Kitchen, Lines in the Sand, Trial of Tears are top, top-shelf DT songs in my book.