Run, Forever - A Few Good Things

 

For a short while, Run, Forever felt like a really important band. Then they just sort of vanished. It happens a lot I guess, and there's probably not always a dramatic end; a lot of bands just fizzle out. I assume that's what happened here, but I have no idea really. 

Between 2011 and 2015 I bought a bunch of their records. Not quite everything they put out, but most. I even bought all four colours of their second album Settling, although I think that was more because the option was presented to me by the record label than a real desire to actually go deep on collecting them. Even the bands I love the most I don't go down to colour-variant-level of collecting. Those for records are something of an anomaly in my collection with their identical spines all next to each other, but a nice reminder of that brief period when Run, Forever seemed like a really important band.

This 7" came out between their first and second albums. I've not played either in a while now, but this feels like a good mixture of the two, possibly more in common with the first, but I'm only saying that because two of the songs here are huge, and in my memory the first album had more stand-out songs like that. Those two songs are the first on each side - Letters and Get Better. The former probably ranks among their best songs, and both are earnest, eager punk-rock songs, full of energy and hard-hitting. Growing Pains is a nice reflective closer, which is a perfectly normal sort of song to write, but an unusual one to put on an EP when you have fewer songs to play with. Fall Hard is a nice acoustic song, but feels unfinished.

I bought this 7" when I saw them play at Fest in 2013, although I don't particularly remember the set - I couldn't tell you which venue it was in, unlike the first time I saw them at Fest 2011, which is firmly etched into my mind. It was the fifth day of the festival and they were the ninth band I saw that day, sandwiched between 1994! (who I do remember seeing) and Restorations (who I think I remember seeing, like 80% sure which venue they were in). I had the other albums they were selling, but picked up this and a t-shirt. Two years later they released another album and then sort of disappeared. More on that when I get round to writing about the final, self-titled LP.

Format: 7", folded sleeve, insert

Tracks: 4

Cost: £3.15 new

Bought: Fest

When: 02/11/13

Colour: Purple

Etching: Side A: "Better step aside home school, there's a new sheriff in town! Side B: "They’re break dance fighting!"
mp3s: download

Run Forever - Settling

Run Forever blew me away with their first album. I played The Devil, and Death and Me pretty much on repeat for ages and I had an excellent time watching them at Fest that year. It was a perfect band-crush. To a certain extent, I played that album too much, which meant I was pretty excited when they announced their second album was coming out; I was definitely in need of some new Run Forever music.

On first listen, I enjoyed the record, but it didn't knock me off my feet like the debut did. I was a bit disappointed but knew I'd probably built the excitement up in my mind to a point where it was never going to live up to expectations. Where Settling and The Devil... differ is that Settling is a grower. In the year-and-a-half that I've had this album it's gone from being this enjoyable punk-rock record to being a great album I want to go back to over and over again. At some point the albums shifted and Settling became the Run Forever album I'd go to first.

The highlights for me appear at either end of the album - Good Enough and Forget are both incredible songs. The former sets the scene for the album reflecting on past times but the latter looks forward optimistically. I like that a lot - Settling isn't just ten songs, but a journey of dealing with the past and moving on. There are great songs in the middle as well - Basement, Postcards and Drop Out are all brilliant too.

I'm not great at ordering records from the states - the exchange rate is usually pretty good but the postage soon adds up and every now and again Customs decide they want a slice of the pie too. When I do order from abroad, I tend to stock up (there'll be a bunch more posts on here about that particular shopping spree). I knew I'd have to order this record to get a copy - it certainly wasn't going to appear in any UK shops any time soon and I hadn't planned to go back to Fest at that point.

There were four colour options on the Tiny Engines website and I was a bit torn about what to do - the smoke-white vinyl sounded the nicest, but part of me wanted the least numerous press (the green in the picture). They also had the option to order all four colours. Normally I wouldn't go for this, but I'd been reading some blogs of some guys who obsessively hunted down every colour of records for certain bands and a part of me really liked that. Combined with my indecision about the colour, I decided to order all four. They've since released some other pressings (including one only available on a US tour), so my dream of owning every variant of their records was shot down pretty soon (although it's probably for the best - I know that a better use of my money is to spend it getting into other bands). Still, the four colours I do own look very lovely when all lined up.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £9.30 (each) new
Bought: Tiny Engines webstore
When: 10/01/13
Colour: Green (/100), pink (/125), blue (/125), smoke-white (/150)
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Run, Forever - The Devil, And Death, And Me

Run, Forever and ONSIND were my two favourite musical discoveries of last year. Both had albums that came out in 2010 that I didn't hear until 2011, but it would have been a close fight for album of the year had I heard them in 2010 (or if they came out in 2011). The ONSIND story can come another time, this is about how I heard Run, Forever for the first time late one night and how I fell in love with this record.

In the lead up to Fest the organisers put out samplers on bandcamp of the bands playing. Given that I was flying half way round the world, and because I wouldn't be able to afford Fest again for another few years afterwards, I wanted to hear as many of the bands playing as possible. On the first sampler, at about one in the morning sometime in July I heard The Devil, and Death, and Me for the very first time. I was blown away by it, and I still am now. The song was basically perfect: a marching beat, shouty vocals AND group vocals, catchy chorus, a little breakdown all wrapped up in 3 minutes. You can't really ask for more.

Needless to say, I looked them up and found their album online and listened to that over and over again in the months that followed. I had my doubts that it could be as good as the title track I heard on the sampler, but it is. I can honestly say I've never heard such a heart-felt record. The singer sings/shouts the lyrics with an urgency that only In The Aeroplane Over The Sea can beat, and you can feel their loss in almost every line of every song. All the things I loved about the title track appear again throughout the album at every turn and the beat of the drums carries the album the whole way through. A Sequence of Sad Events, The Grand Illusion and 10,000 Leagues are all highlights, but the other songs between them are still fantastic, and Lifted is a perfect closer.

On the Friday of Fest they played in the Laboratory and I got there especially early to make sure I'd see them (the bonus to this was that we also saw Cutman, another good discovery). They were brilliant and the crowd went suitably mad for them. I had a great time and sung along to all the songs I could remember the words to. Afterwards I bought the LP and, something I don't tend to do, told the band what a great time I'd had. They were as good live as I'd hoped they would be.

I often worry when I get a record I instantly love that I'll over play it and get a bit sick of it. I've had this record seven months now and played it countless times and I'm nowhere near sick of it. I can't recommend this record to people enough; one song has made it onto every mixtape I've made since the first time I heard them. One of the reasons I was so keen to listen to loads of Fest bands before going out was because it might be my only chance to see them. Some bands get the good fortune of a UK tour, but not always. I hope Run, Forever one day make it over so I can see them again, but if they don't then I'm very pleased indeed that I got to see them and that I have this record in my life.


Format: 12", A3(ish) poster insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.20 new
Bought: Fest
When: 28/10/11
Colour: Pale blue?
Etching: Side A: "This record in every possible way is for Corey Wolfram, RIP my friend" Side B: "If you lose that battle, you lose that battle 9 times out of 10"
mp3s: download