Tracklist: 1. Performative Hours 2. Rat King 3. Big Strum 4. Top Left Door 5. It’ll Hurt 6. Oath 7. Recoil 8. Souvenir 9. Tunnel Vision 10. Heirloom 11. Under a Dying Sun
Excited for this - in the meantime will be checking out Inviting Light, as I really forgot about that one. Not sure what was going on around that time in 2017, but one of those ones that slipped through and I never really revisited.
I like it, not as much as Performative though Thought they might try to just go back to their roots with this but after seeing them play a ton of Inviting Light last week and now this new single seems like they're just moving forward Which I don't mind at all
Alright, I'm finishing my 2nd listen and I'm enjoying it more this time around than the first. I already liked it on first listen.
The first half was dragging for me but the 2nd half picked up. Album is definitely better than Inviting Light (that isn't saying much) but it still lacks the hooks that their older stuff had. I get that they're older and different people than when they were 16yr old kids writing Destroy To Create, but I can't figure out how the whole band decided this was the direction to go in. And I can't figure out why this is being put out on Fat, of all labels.
The songs are good and there are way more hooks here than there were on DTC (a good album but also their worst tbh, Cavalcade is top Flatliners material) plus the guitar work is really good.
I listened to the album 4 times today and I can barely remember a single riff or chorus besides Rat King. There are no hooks.
You don't have to like the hooks but that is objectively untrue. You can call the hooks bad, but they remain hooks nonetheless (plus they are pretty good) Meanwhile, I find it very easy to remember the songs and their hooks after just 2 listens. Anyone that denies the hooks in the very first song, the very first single... how can you pretend Performative Hours does not have a great hook? It has been stuck in my head practically since the day it was released and kept me hooked & excited for the album.
Big Strum and Top Left Door were massive disappointments on first listen, but mostly enjoying this otherwise.
Oath is fucking huge and in a weird way musically reminds me of Skiba era Blink 182, but way better. Big Strum and Top Left Door still let me down so much, to such a big level that it kinda drops the whole album a peg for me.