My gateway drug to CH was the 2006 Farewell to the World release - I’d heard of them before, but hadn’t listened to them in a decade or so, and FTTW came out around my 18th birthday. So Time on Earth and Intriguer are the two records I’ve experienced in “real time” so to speak.
And I love those albums, because that whole era was great. In additional to ancillary personal memories, they make me think of the first streamed in studio gig, following all the other pre tour gigs in ‘07, the great tour, the new material shows in ‘08, all the waiting in ‘09, getting a couple of sneak peaks of Intriguer at Neil’s Bush Hall Show in ‘10, and the great ‘10 tour that followed.
It was a brilliant 4 years to be a CH fan, and the records remind me of that.
Do they stand alone pretty well too? I think so, but in truth I couldn’t possibly hope to be objective.