Really enjoying this record. It’s a nice return to form. My only minor gripes are the final track and the sequencing, which in all honesty doesn’t really matter these days. I’m sure the final track will grow on me. Favorite track currently has to be Blink Wave
I do agree with the idea that they sort of brought every piece of their history into this album. Every side project, every album, etc. But the thing I appreciate is that you can still tell this whole thing has its own sound because it was worked on as a cohesive unit over the last year. Even the songs that stemmed from old ideas just fit so well on this album because of everyone else's input. It's also why nothing really feels that derivative even though it's all familiar in some way. Almost anything of Tom's I've listened to in the last 20 years has me constantly thinking "I've heard that exact melody/cadence in several of his recent songs..." but that's not the case here. Sure, there are a couple guitar riffs here and there that sound familiar, but overall, it feels pretty fresh.
Not sure if the highs on here match the highs from the Hoods/DED era. But the lows aren’t nearly as low from those efforts either. Overall it’s definitely a better album than Neighborhoods, I just don’t love anything on here as much as Natives, Hearts all Gone, Disaster ect. That’ll probably change with time though.
My mom ordered the blood records variant for me so idk when I’ll get it, but I move in 24 days so uuuh let’s hope soon
Apparently they were shooting a video for Childhood... Source just some reddit post I saw a couple weeks ago lol. Or people assumed that's what it was since it featured a younger Mark Tom and Travis