That callback got me too. Sometimes I can just straight up tell where they’re going to be integrated, but that one genuinely surprised me. The Cross My Heart interpolation in World Collide is awesome too.
Yeah I agree with the assessment that this is better than Phantoms but below the OG trilogy but that’s ok, because it still means that this is one of my favorite records of the year! So many awesome, fun moments. Worlds Collide is crazy, the orchestral stampede in Turn and Run is Coheed and Cambria -coded, and the starting and ending runs are fantastic. There a lot to digest here and some really strong songwriting, with some stuff you just don’t get out of many bands these days… that being said, there are some very strange production and arrangement choices that’s really holding it back, disappointedly so, most significantly the drums sounding straight up bad at points. And the poppier songs are where the album falters a bit, where they’re strong but they sound sparse, trying to streamline the arrangements for focus on the melodies…which pulls back too many of the punches for my liking (looking at you Ancient History). still, loving this album and a worthy follow up to Phantoms after all these years. Just so so happy to hear Josh ripping some insane vocals again
I still need to listen to this. I’ve been so caught up with other crap that I haven’t got around to it. I think I’ll try to fix that today.
I've half way through, and yeah this is pretty sweet. It doesn't touch the first 3 albums but it has the magic that made those special. Now or Never literally reminds me of What Dreams Are Made Of by Hilary Duff haha.
So I’m late to this but Jesus Christ this album is incredible. I’ve liked previous albums from them to varying degrees but this one floored me. Described it to @Meerkat as “like someone let them loose in the junkyard of pop music history and they somehow built a Megazord out of it and wrote a musical for it to perform” “When Worlds Collide” is definitely the biggest standout for me but the title track isn’t far behind
A Normal Life is my fav on here I think. The straight 80s pastiche songs don’t work for me as much as they did on Astoria.
I was geeking out to that one in my car just asking myself aloud "Are these motherfuckers lifting from Styx!?!" Killer song.