@Chris Yates Yep, the first song pulled me in right away. It's the start to an album that consistently served up pleasant surprises for me, sonically. It's not where you expect the album to start.
I like this a lot after one listen which is surprising to me because after hearing the first few songs he released I wasn't a big fan of the changes he had made to his sound. Those songs fit a lot better in the context of the album.
Agreed. I wasn't terribly taken with "Brace for Impact" as a single, but like it way better within the flow of the album.
The flow of this album is really really good. It starts on a high note and ends the exact same way. About to spin this again. In Bloom works really well in the album. Brace For Impact is one of the best songs within the album, and I wasn't extremely high on it by itself. Very much and album you want to listen to together vs individually. Also a first impression: the things I dislike about MSICM (still love it) are not apparent on this album on first listen
I only got one listen in while working, but this sounded great. Loved the horns, and the whole thing flowed well. I can't wait to go home and listen more carefully on better headphones.
I've listened to this five times now, and I can honestly say it gets better every time. It's so much more diverse than Metamodern and I don't really think you could arrange the tracks better than he did here. The two songs we heard early work quite a bit better in context with the full album. I don't think it's too long, or too short - it's perfect. Not to say you can't enjoy these tracks separately, but this is one I'll more than likely listen to as whole, rather than individual tracks.
Yeah, how he put it all together is pretty masterful. It's like this big long symphony or something. The rip I have right now is just the full record in one track, and it seems more like movements than individual tracks sometimes. Pretty cool approach.
Digging into the lyrics a bit more as I work on my review. There's a lot going on here. It's a very complex, potent record.
There's a lot I liked about this, but I'm not sure I can deal with his vocals. I have a very low tolerance for twang.
The only problem I have with his voice sometimes is that he seems to mumble or slur his words a little at times. Its even more noticeable live, but maybe its just me...