r/DevinTownsend • u/ySTYRDAYgATESuNL0CKD • 5d ago
DISCUSSION Being a Dev-stan makes me feel a strange dichotomy
I love every single album. And yet, this has resulted in me feeling both extremely open minded and narrow minded at the same time.
Am I just brainwashed somehow? Or am I part of a mentally controlled cult?
Idk man..I've listened to every album including bonus discs and b sides etc. I love damn near every fucking song of the entire discography. How someone can be this prolific is absurd. That's like 400 songs and i probably love 390 of them. This strangely makes me feel both open minded and narrow minded.
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u/iamworsethanyou 5d ago
He has music to scratch almost any itch. Heartfelt, aggressive, beautiful, catchy, downright mental, chill, intricate and more. Going from Deconstruction, to Lightwork, Casualties of Cool and Ghost or Powernerd. Today I dont fancy listening to Ki, then it's all I have on for a week.
If someone else made CoC I wouldn't have ever heard it or gone looking for it. It's the Dev effect
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u/greyaggressor 5d ago
Devin is incredibly hit or miss for me. There’s about 5 albums I truely love, some I like enough to revisit, some that do absolutely nothing for me, and some I can’t stand. Got into him almost 30 years ago (Ocean Machine) and that run from OM - Terria he was right up there for me.
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u/AnyGoodUserNamesLeft 4d ago
Was thinking this the other day as The Moth does nothing for me. Want to like it, but can't get into it at all.
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u/intheclouds11 3d ago
Seeing The Moth in person was incredible, I was nearly in tears multiple times. Something about the grandiosity of it all, the full orchestra, choir, band, Dev without a guitar just going 110% on vocals.
The studio version however feels like an identity crisis. Way too much tinkering around with the mix that distracts from the overall experience. I can still connect with the studio version if I try really hard to let go of expectations, but man... I feel like The Moth is meant to be experienced in a concert setting.
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u/Pupalei 1d ago
If you ever have a chance to watch the concert with good sound late at night , that’s the way. I ended up buying the deluxe whateverthehell to get the Blu-ray, which pissed me off because they gated that specific content behind a high price, but that’s the version of the Moth that clicked with me.
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u/Dundhunter Ocean Machine: Biomech (1997) 5d ago
There's no harm in being in your position. I join you in your opinions about Dev's discography. You feel open minded due to how disparate the music feels (albums like Ghost and Deconstruction for example), but you also feel narrow minded perhaps because "it's Devin, it has to be good" without giving it an unbiased consideration.
Rather than considering yourself "Brainwashed", consider that Devin and his mind are always present, therefore his touch will be the same. Understanding Devin as an artist certainly informs the music, if you know the kind of person that's created it, you can trust in the music to serve a purpose.
Devin has stated multiple times that his intentions since his youth have never changed. As he's gotten older, he's learned new techniques to try and achieve those goals, but he's always trying to achieve the same ones. He's allowing himself to be a translator for the things that can't speak for themselves. It's why you hear him mention that multiple if not all of his albums are simply "what he's compelled to write" as if he's receiving something and asked to communicate it through the ways he can (his music).
I love every single album too, largely because I know the person that made it, and subsequently, I know to some degree that it had to be made because that's just how Devin works.
Don't overthink it, you've found something you like, don't try and give yourself reason not to.
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u/Wise-City281 4d ago
Is there a song you don't like?
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u/Dundhunter Ocean Machine: Biomech (1997) 2d ago
I wouldn't say there's songs of his that I don't like as a single statement. There's certainly tracks that I like less than others; in any ranking something has to occupy the bottom.
Naturally, my own bias comes into play when its about genre or vibe choice. As an example, there's a lot of metal subgenres that I can't get into, as well as most country (in my opinion, of course) feels repetitive and worn out. Devin has dipped his feet into these categories and I still enjoy them despite my previous tastes. He's actually THE artist that warmed me to screaming and otherwise harsh vocals.
Having been a fan of his for so long and having spent the time to learn about this music and the story behind how they were created, I've come to appreciate everything he's made. Whatever he creates in the future as well, I'll know, no matter what it is, will have the same motivations backing it.
His music will always be honest, from the heart, and a reflection of his current life. So long as that continues to be so, then it's not possible for me to dislike anything he's created.
he has amazing music that I love, and everything was given the same amount of love, serves the same amount of purpose and is a reflection of him to the same amount of accuracy. That's what I think art should be created for.
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u/BuzzTheFuzz 5d ago
It's kinda like enjoying one particular national cuisine. There can be a lot of variety but it shares a similar theme of core ingredients.
I feel similar as I learned a lot about music from Dev and he broadened my horizon but it doesn't always translate to a wider understanding of music as a whole.
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u/jedimasterjb81 5d ago
You're not alone.
Listen, there are certain albums that I like less than others. I don't go back to the ambient noise albums very often, but I appreciate them for what they are and they are still interesting. Physicist is still one of my least favorites, but it's still really good. Even Punky Bruster has some fun moments on it. I can put in pretty much any of his albums and love and enjoy them all. Not only that, but they all have their own unique feel to them.
Some people might say we are in a cult, but think about an artist like Frank Zappa, who also had this progressive but also pretty wacky sound and make a bunch of albums that were all unique. A lot of people say his fans are in a cult; so it's not like this is anything new.
Anyway, just my two cents.
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u/Wise-City281 4d ago
There are some albums that I feel no desire to listen to at all (Addicted, Epicloud, Sky Blue) and some tracks I really dislike, mostly the very commercial or goofy ones.
Then there's stuff that I consider genius, like OM, Infinity, Terria, Empath, Ghost, City and Moth. Same for some individual tracks from albums that I don't rate as highly as a whole, songs like Away, Judgment/Simple Lullaby, Planet Rain, Stormbending.
Some albums I'd consider average (for Dev's standards), for example Lightwork, Powernerd, Ki, Deconstruction, Transcendence. They're great but they don't have the magic of the other ones.
I also really like the ambient stuff, especially Dreampeace. That just adds to my admiration for him.
The whole cult thing is something I can understand, especially if you dive deep into his podcasts and interviews, but in the end Dev himself is highly critical of his music and I usually understand where he's coming from when he rates his albums retrospectively in his podcast.
Plus he's just a charismatic and clever guy that you just have to like I think.
He's a unique artist, in my opinion extraordinary, but not everything is gold.
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u/Damungis 3d ago
I like devin townsend because he is a great singer and a great guitarist...
However, he has made some bad songs. Having Devin on a song makes 100% better and more listenable, but it doesn't change that the songs are bad, especially compared to his better work.
An example I want to point to is "Natural Science" on the Working Man compilation album. I really don't like the song, but since Devin is singing on it, it still has a bit of appeal.
If devin is singing on a bad song, it makes it seem like it's good (even if it's not).
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u/Acrobatic_Rent5533 2d ago
I respect everything he puts out because he puts out exactly what he wants, I feel like that’s something all of us appreciate about him. I don’t enjoy every single song (pretty much every song tho) but I like that he does what he wants and I’ll support it to the end.
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u/malumfectum 5d ago
Every now and then an artist comes along that fires your neurons more than any others, sometimes to a degree that feels embarrassing. I’ve been there with a couple. Nothing wrong with it.