Walk the Moon - Talking is Hard (2014)

Reason for Listening:
My Last.fm Albums Scrobbled (2018).
Scrobbles: 25. Scrobble/Album_Song_Count: 2.08

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I first learned about Walk the Moon while preparing for Firefly 2015. I was hooked. I loved them so much, that I immediately bought their album on CD. I listened to it many times while driving (I estimate about twenty, see Walk the Moon - Firefly 2015). Sometimes I just sat in my car and I would wait for a song to end. I scrobbled the album from 2015 to 2019 with 108, 15, 2, 25, and 5 scrobbles.

With respect to individual tracks, I scrobbled "Shut Up and Dance" 46 times and "Work This Body" 43 times from 2015 to 2019. Third most scrobbled tracks only has 10 scrobbles and the discrepancy in plays is due to the two songs being my favorite and appearing on my favorites playlists. The two songs were ranked 27 and 25, respectively, on my Top 32 Songs (2018 Edition). They were ranked 17 (8-way tie) and 7 (2-way tie), respectively, on my Top 32 Songs (2016 Edition). Finally, back in 2015, "Work This Body" was ranked 3 on a Top 5 and ranked 5 on a Top 12/25/58 (see Top 32 Songs (2015 Edition)). Meanwhile, "Shut Up and Dance" didn't make the Top 25, but was part of the Top 58 during the same year. In short, I've always liked the energy of "Work This Body" more than "Shut Up and Dance."

Released 20141202.
12 songs. 43:11. Talking Is Hard (2014)
12+3 songs. 43:11+10:01. Talking Is Hard (Expanded Edition) (2014)
Wikipedia

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Notes:
--20200111--
First listen. Expanded Edition.
I have listened to this album so many times that I began humming the opening notes of "Shut Up and Dance" after the end of "Sidekick."
Huh, I feel overall I have begun to like certain tracks less, especially the case with this track ("Portugal")
And I feel as if oddly I like "Spend Your $$$" more than before.

Songs in bold are the bonus tracks on the Expanded Edition.
4: "Work This Body";
3: "Shut Up And Dance"; "Shut Up and Dance" (Live at Sirius XM);
2: "Sidekick"; "Avalanche"; "Portugal";
1: "Different Colors"; "Down In the Dumps"; "Spend Your $$$"; "Come Under the Covers"; "Aquaman"; "Boyfriend";
0: "Up 2 U"; "We Are the Kids"; "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" (Live at Sirius XM);

Summary:
There was a time where I listened to this album nonstop. While that phase has passed, the album is still up there. If I were to have assigned a rating to this album in 2015, then it would probably have gotten a 5.8 or a 6.0. In 2016, I probably would have given it a 5.4 or a 5.6. Here and now in 2019, I think it's either a 4.8 or a 5.0.*,**

Overall Rating (Standard): 4.8/5*,**
Overall Rating (Expanded): 4.6/5**
Favorite Song: "Work This Body"

*After this album I listened to Be OK (Ingrid Michaelson), which I rated a 5.4. Initially this made me wonder if I gave this album, Talking Is Hard, too high of a score. Yes and no. I think the score is too high with respect to how I truly feel about the entire album at the time of this writing. But emotionally, I spent so much time listening to this album in the past that there's a sort of hidden emotional component that got unlocked. In that sense, a 5.0 is too low of a score. I think a 5.0 is a good middle ground.
**[20200113: Today I listened to Ripely Pines and rated it a 5.2. That rating had me reconsider various recent ratings and once again I thought about my 5.0 rating for Talking is Hard. After some thought, I decided that it's better to give it a current score of 4.8. In particular, I did already acknowledge the high scores it would have received back in the day.]

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Billboard Top 200
Peak Date: 20150515 | Peak Position: 14 | Weeks on Chart: 58

"Shut Up And Dance"
Billboard Hot 100
Peak Date: 20150529 | Peak Position: 4 | Weeks on Chart: 53

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Notes:
--2015####--
See Walk the Moon - Firefly 2015.
[20200111: "Shut Up And Dance" was rated an "E7," "Work This body" an "E5," and "Portugal" an "E3" which are technically translated to an 8, 6, and 4, respectively, in the modern rating system. However, I feel it's more appropriate to reassign these as 5, 4, and 3, respectively.]

5: "Shut Up And Dance";
4: "Work This Body";
3: "Portugal";
2: "Sidekick"; "Avalanche"; "Come Under the Covers"; "Aquaman";
1: "Different Colors"; "Down In the Dumps"; "We Are the Kids";
0: "Up 2 U"; "Spend Your $$$";

--20160528--
During the performance...
See Walk the Moon - Bottlerock 2016 for details.
[20200111: "Shut Up And Dance" was rated an "E5," "Work This body" an "E9," and "Portugal" an "E5" which are technically translated to an 6, 10, and 6, respectively, in the modern rating system. However, I feel it's more appropriate to reassign these as 5, 6, and 5, respectively.]

Performance
6: "Work This Body";
5: "Shut Up and Dance"; "Portugal";
4: "Avalanche";
3: "Aquaman";
2: "Different Colors"; "Up 2 U";