After enjoying Collide With The Sky immensely, I wanted to hear more of Pierce The Veil. Selfish Machines, being home to some of their most popular songs as well, was an obvious choice. It's always fun to hear older material from a band, especially when it's the album prior to their "best". For some reason, these records always seem to store some amazing deep cuts that sometimes even trump the "best" record's offerings.
I already knew Caraphernelia and Bulletproof Love before diving in, this was before I started listening to full records so I had my first taste of Pierce The Veil from the top 5 songs on Spotify. I didn't know what to expect from Selfish Machines at first, but on my first listen I was pleasantly surprised to find that its sound wasn't wildly different from its successor. Their energetic and youthful post-hardcore rage was still in full force, arguably more prominent than in Collide With The Sky. More lead guitar work, a tiny bit more screaming, a tad bit less pop-like and a lot more fun. There really are some days where Selfish Machines feels like a better album overall than Collide With The Sky, but most days I'm happy to see them as equally awesome.
Getting more of their great music is no doubt a blessing. There is a sizeable amount of beautiful instrumentation, catchy vocal melodies, brilliant riffs and drumming, and an unmistakable essence of love-laden, youthful exuberance emanating from every second of this record. I particularly love the non-live band elements that contribute to the euphoric soundscapes on Bulletproof Love and Million Dollar Houses (The Painter), they really do hit a sweet spot that I don't really know how to describe with these two tracks.
If there's one difference I had to point out between Selfish Machines and Collide With The Sky, it's that Selfish Machines boasts a lot more complexity overall. More guitarwork, more instrumental and melodical variety, and more structural diversity. I love that they did the prelude-to-main double track trope here with Southern Constellations and The Boy Who Could Fly, it was something small I adored about Collide With The Sky and I'm glad to see that it's not a one-off.
There's really not that much I can or want to say. Both Selfish Machines and Collide With The Sky are records that I'd much rather feel and experience than try to put into words, and a majority of its appeal is the emotion that the records can capture and channel to the listener. I hate that I've been comparing Selfish Machines to its successor the entire time, since it came first and deserves to stand on its own, but I've always thought of them as sister albums, and it just happens to be that I listened to them in the wrong order. If it isn't clear at this point, it's an amazing record.
Rating: 10/10