Holy shit, okay, so Umphrey’s McGee just surprise released a brand-new studio album. This is the second studio album they have put out this year, falling only four months after the first. While the first album, “It’s Not Us,” (released on January 12th) was greatly received and advertised, the new album, “It’s You,” was a complete surprise to the public. We had no time to prepare. All the umphreaks (what Umphrey’s fans call themselves) were blindsided by this fantastic news. I woke up on Friday, May 18th, to my phone glowing blue with a thousand twitter notifications. Everyone was tweeting about the new album that had been secretly dropped early that morning. I, as well as many of my friends, didn’t really know what to do with myself. Of course, the first thing I did was put it on and cry (just a little). Umphrey’s sure knows how to keep its fans on the edge of their seats. The amount of UM shows this year has been slacking and this new album just might make up for that.
I was kind of in a funky place in my life. I wasn’t hula hooping or doing as much yoga as I usually do. I just felt weird. Once I heard the new album, my spirits were lifted. The Umphrey’s magic has once again taken a toll on my life. Not only were the songs superb, but the message was even greater. Umphrey’s has provided their fans with twenty awesome years of music. I interpret both albums as having a message for us, “It’s not us, it’s you.” I think this is a thank you from Umphrey’s for supporting them no matter what throughout the years. I also think that because they are celebrating their second decade of music they thought it would be fun to drop a second album of music. Those glorious bastards. We don’t deserve them, their too good to us.
The first sign of the new album was in the deluxe version of “It’s Not Us.” Hidden in the side panel of the box set was a perforated section that, when broken open, revealed a 45 of “It’s You.” The 45 only featured the songs “Triangle Tear” and “Upward.” I thought I was going to have to spend $150 just the listen to the studio “Upward.” But Umphrey’s had a surprise up their clever sleeve. The album features songs that had already been heard by the fans such as “Attachments,” “In the Black,” and “Upward.” The album also included six brand new songs never heard by the public before.
At first listen my favorite new song was probably “Nether.” I really love Jake songs and this one definitely satisfied my void of not seeing them for a couple of months. All the songs are beautifully crafted. This album is a little less pop-y than “It’s Not Us” and has more of that Umphrey’s sound that we all love. I think “It’s Not Us” sounded the way it did as to distract the phreaks while they were finishing up this new piece of artwork. Don’t get me wrong, I loved “It’s Not Us.” It is well put together and much appreciated on my part. The songs just tell a different story on “It’s You.” The flow of the album is perfect, and it tugs on all of the right heart strings. They start the album off strong with a new tune called “Triangle Tear.” It’s the perfect song to kick off the album. The song has a beautiful up and down of tones. It starts out almost like an AC/DC intro and then quickly changes into a Pink Floyd-like trance dance. They conclude the album with one of my favorites, “Upward.” They put a new spin on this already gorgeous song that they debuted at Summer Camp Music Festival in 2014.
“Upward” is special to me because for the longest time I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember the name of the song. I had seen it many times live and heard my roommate, Uncle Wally, listening to it. But every time I heard it I had to ask, “what’s the name of this song again?” And Wally would tell me “Upward.” But I couldn’t remember. It got to the point where we would be hearing it live and all I would have to do is look at Wally and he would mouth “UPWARD” to me. I can’t remember at what moment the name finally stuck with me, but it soon became one of my favorite UM songs. Every time I hear it I feel like I’m flying. I was recently dissecting the lyrics and wrote down “you know as well as I ‘deserves’ too strong a word to write” in my notebook under my favorite Umphrey’s lyrics page.
Umphrey’s also recently kicked off their summer tour on May 17th in Baldwinsville, NY. They took a break for almost an entire month. So, they were ready and happy to be onstage playing music again. Life just feels right when there is new Umphrey’s shows to listen to in the morning. I love waking up and checking nugs every ten minutes to see if they’ve put out time stamps yet. I haven’t seen UM since February 15th in Washington DC. Its been way too long so you know I’m counting down the minutes until I get to see them next Thursday in Charleston, SC. They will be playing at Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL this weekend. I have been to scamp the past two years and I’m not going this year. My heart is super heavy that I won’t be raging with all you scampers this weekend but I hope you all have SO much fun and stay safe!
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