Wish I loved this as it's obvious it was assembled with care and attention, but after a couple of listens not much is landing for me the way the debut did (w a couple exceptions). Also his vox do start to grate on me after a while in a way they didn't before.
So far with the first listen it hasn't made me as floored as I was with the first one, but I did listen very late at night, pretty sure now it requires more energy from me to focus. New All Get Out was an easier listen, I'll def be coming back to both (starting right now hahh)
It's definitely less polished, weirder, and more unwieldy in a way that is way less immediate than the debut. It's really good, shares some DNA with Lenses Alien and Pretty Years imo, but definitely requires repeat listens. Excited for my vinyl to ship.
Just finishing now, fantastic as expected. Not as tight as EC1 or LOSE but definitely plenty of A level material. Cool S, Dustine, and FLA faves on first listen.
This is so wildly ambitious and dense that it's probably going to take months before I can fully wrap my ahead around it, but he really did fucking go for it on this album and it's absolutely fascinating and incredible. I can't help but think that, much like CEG's ouvre, time is going to do wonders for how this one is viewed, and the lyricism is insanely cool.
to anyone it may concern my entirely biased and indulgent review for this is up: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/87863/Empty-Country-Empty-Country-II/ (hopefully have a real cool interview with Joe coming soon!)
This is really starting to affect me the exact same way that CEG's music always did that made them one of my all time favorite bands.