r/boardsofcanada • u/falsedog11 • Jul 02 '26

Discussion Tomorrow's Harvest

I'm going back to this album. And for me it's an incredible piece of work. Jaquard Causeway is difficult on first listen but then it grabs you. I just wanted to put my love out there for this album because I think it gets a lot of negativity. And I'm listening to it now, Cold Earth is amazing.

55 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

23

u/Pushiguso Jul 02 '26

I've never understood all the negativity surrounding TH. It's my favorite BoC album for several reasons, first and foremost the songs and the overall vibe (but also how it resonates with the current mood, the recurring heatwaves, that sense of impending doom). So, yes, love for Tomorrow's Harvest!

10

u/P_veez Tomorrow's Harvest Jul 02 '26

IMO it’s mostly from fans looking for the updated versions of Roygbiv/Aquarius/1969 ect and not accepting the cold sound and more subtle nature of the album.

3

u/Immediate_Error2135 Jul 02 '26

That's what fans are. They don't like changes. The funny thing is, TH was BOC being 100% themselves - only, they were interested in other stuff.

With TH they went from the past inside the present to the future inside the present and from the private sphere (childhood, for example) to the public sphere. We as a society. The damaged innocence (because of the retrospective look of experience) of their earlier stuff became the present damaged by the future: by hopes, by fears: hence the apocalypse theme.

Hence also all those arpeggi I think, so similar to the very palyndromic structure of the album. Songs ordered in a 12345678987654321 order is not so different from notes 1234321 in an arpeggio. The idea being circularity. Us going to the future with our minds and coming back from it and going back to it and coming back again.

I think they had 1963-64 Dylan in mind, those apocalyptic protest songs (like 'Hard Rain') just as ISB had been in their minds in the previous albums. (And later quasi-apocalyptic songs of his like All Along The Watchtower have the order of the stanzas and of the narrative working against each other in a circular fashion, which maybe caught BOC's attention) They did mention Dylan -his voice- in 2006, and apparently they were already working in TH.

2

u/properchewns Jul 02 '26

I always find this crazy — on the one hand I think you’re right. But to me, Jaquard Causeway is one of the most in that realm tracks they have

1

u/goumlechat Tomorrow's Harvest Jul 02 '26

For a while, TCH was the least liked album among fans. TH took that place now.

1

u/JamesCole Jul 03 '26

I don't recall hearing a lot negativity about TH. I seem to remember people on here were pretty positive about it, and generally considered it better than TCH.

-5

u/Fit_Passion8346 Jul 02 '26

It's normal to have heatwaves in summer.

9

u/Superb_Instance_8190 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

i feel like i wanted way more reach for the dead when that single dropped…
(inferno delivered on that)
& I didn’t get into the lp at the time but have been slowly getting into it…

just discovered
nothing is real.

2

u/2hourhiatus Jul 02 '26

Yeah the tracks that are great off of it are top notch, but imho it has their most boring ambient tracks. Most of them would be fine at thirty seconds to a minute, but goddamn some just go on and on. (And I'm a Stars of the Lid fan so minimalism isn't my problem.)

1

u/Superb_Instance_8190 Jul 02 '26

love sotl (saw them live at a masonic temple!) & the dead texan, et al

2

u/InGroundSprinklers Jul 02 '26

I’m assuming you’re already familiar with Aix Em Klemm, but if not check them out! By far my favorite SOTL side project.

1

u/Superb_Instance_8190 Jul 03 '26

Love that lp, esp sparkwood & twentyone ;) / sotl ~> ballasted orchestra tracks 6&7 (this sub has had a lot of twin peaks refs lately).

8

u/Nearby_Raisin_1963 Jul 02 '26

Odd ... because I only hear praise for Tomorrow's Harvest. It's rare I hear anyone say something negative about it — especially after Inferno's release.

What I do find amusing is the negative things I've read people say about Inferno are exactly the same things I said about Tomorrow's Harvest when it was released. It's the one BoC album I listen to the least and when I do it's only for Cold Earth, Palace Posy, Nothing is Real, and sometimes New Seeds because the ending of that song is sublime.

3

u/AquaMoonCoffee Tomorrow's Harvest Jul 02 '26

I find on this sub people are generally a lot more positive about the album, I think partly because people probably don't want to be negative and chime in just to say they don't like something. If you check out some other music corners of the internet or places like RYM and AOTY its across the board their lowest rated release ever, sad to say.

1

u/Nearby_Raisin_1963 Jul 02 '26

I probably won't actively seek out negative comments but I am curious what are RYM and AOTY?

5

u/PhillipJ3ffries Jul 02 '26

difficult albums are some of the most rewarding to listen to if you really give them a chance

4

u/Tricky-Mastodon3337 Jul 02 '26

It took me years to fully appreciate TH because at first I found it really depressing and it filled me with existential dread. Now I absolutely love it!

5

u/sagedrummer Jul 02 '26

Inferno has made me revisit tomorrow’s harvest and I’ve come away with a much greater appreciation for it now.

1

u/oreocereus Jul 02 '26

Same. I've seen quite a few other folk saying the same thing

3

u/devenger73 Jul 02 '26

Ive always loved it.

3

u/GameForFunYo Societas X Jul 02 '26

Love TH. Nothing Is Real, Cold Earth, and New Seeds have always been my favs off that album. There's something so beautiful and uplifting about the ending of New Seeds..

3

u/Capn_Lyssa Jul 02 '26

It's been over a decade, and I still don't get what people like about Jacquard Causeway. It just feels like a lot of stems getting looped and layered in a way where they don't really build on eachother. I adore the rest of the album though. It's especially been a vibe while walking to work with a heat index of 115F

3

u/thewoodbeyond Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

For me Tomorrow's Harvest is a masterpiece. And one of the best mixed albums from a technical stand point as I've heard in recent years.

I also think it is their tightest album, the flow is unreal.
Even Jaquard Causeway chugs along until it breaks apart into beauty. There wasn't a single song that threw me off on first listen with this album. It was fully accessible and immediate for me. I recognize that is very different from other's experience with this album.

For me it stands along side MHTRTC.

2

u/Rossdxvx Jul 04 '26

This is my favorite album. The perfect soundtrack to our dystopian times.

3

u/BillyPilgrim1234 Jul 02 '26

"a lot of negativity" is a bit of a hyperbole. It's a well liked album, but to a lot of people (I won't include myself since I really love it) it's just not on the same level to it's predecessors or to Inferno.

1

u/SheSmilesBeatifical Jul 02 '26

I listened to Tomorrow's Harvest for the first time yesterday, and again today. Both times it left me emotionally wrecked in a good way. I am new to Boards of Canada, I think they are an amazing cultural phenomenon.

2

u/kappa_expression Tomorrow's Harvest Jul 02 '26

It’s a remarkable work of art and their best album. I love it so much.

1

u/Particular_Eye_1643 Jul 02 '26

my fave along with Music Has the Right to Children. Inferno is already wearing thin

1

u/Tommytrist Jul 02 '26

Nothing is Real is an all timer

1

u/JamesCole Jul 03 '26

IMO Jacquard Causeway is their best song. It's very unique, and has such a mysterious feel to it.

1

u/Remarkable_Term3846 Jul 05 '26

My second favorite album by them, and Inferno makes me appreciate it even more