Do Make Say Think - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn FLAC album

they switched gears here slightly before going on hiatus, a hiatus that we all thought was the end. the additions are subtle but profound: punk rock in fredericia and other tracks, a violin segue in the second track and some kind of difficult to understand homage to steve reich in the eighth track. however, the most profound influence on the disc is a rural, twangy feel that is likely not unrelated to the fact that large amounts of it were recorded in hick bars and farms in rural ontario and quebec, the sound and feel of which has been absorbed into do make say think's general sound.

the defining sound of the previous two records is here and at times taken to it's logical conclusion. this is a tinkering, not a rethink; a perfection, a completion. the crescendos are bigger, the builds are more intense and the climaxes are by far the loudest of the band's career. while the formula is static, these really are evolutions and they really are the band demonstrating that they've finally got this thing down, to the point that if you're only ever going to hear one record full of do make say think epics then you should hear the ones on this disc.

while that initially presented this disc as their greatest record, it has not stood up as well as the two preceding it have. in addition to them perfecting their sound, you can also hear the band buckling under a slight sense of boredom and a yearning to expand. i'm both a mathematician and a musician; while proving a formula, musically or mathematically, can be exhilarating and challenging, once that formula is constructed it is something to put away in a cupboard and time to move on to something else. don't misunderstand me; some of these songs - 1, 4, 6, 7 - are arguably the band's best tracks, but some of their least inspired material is scattered, in enclaves, throughout the disc as well. while the period between 2003 and 2007 was a hell of a scare, it is probably best to look back and, in hindsight, conclude that it's better that they split off for a bit than release a string of likely-to-be-uninspired records when they should have been clearing their mind and looking for a new perspective. it's consequently fitting that this was the last disc released before they split up for a bit.

historically, the nature of this disc as a perfecting and tying of loose ends also creates a trilogy of do make say think records that defines the "classic" stage of the act. by the time they regrouped, the core of the act had experienced what it was like to play a stadium tour as mainstream rock stars and the result was a rather different act attempting to appeal to a drastically different audience.