Nothing stands out as "yeah, this is amazing", or groundbreaking/new/different. Out of the non-singles, "The Right Way" and "First Night in Paris" are the only ones that really grab me.
"Kids" is still my favorite as an overall concept, but "Monsters" is still the band's peak, imo. And I know the group used an artist for this art campaign/cover art, but visually its just not interesting. It appears AI-generated, even though its not, so it just doesn't look right.
i didn't get a chance to spin the whole thing yet, but i scrubbed through all of the tracks and really really liked a lot of what i was hearing. a little back to basics in a way, but i'm impressed with what i'm hearing only time will tell where it ranks for me (Kids will always be last though). i don't know a ton about the concept for this record, but it sounds like it deals with a bit of personal troubles for both of them (Tyler's wife was going through cancer treatments and Tim was dealing with a breakup), so in a way, pouring it all into an 85 minute album, while excessive, might seem a bit cathartic.
I didn't get a chance to listen to the whole thing either - I think I made it to Track 12 - but I absolutely love this so far. No bad tracks about ¾ of the way thru, and I already know 2 out of the 5 left are great anyways. I feel bad that you seem underwhelmed - I'm not sure if it's because I'm such a new fan of these guys, but this is an absolute home run for me (I still need to hear 3 songs towards the end).
Yeah I think its more because I'm a long-time fan, I was wanting something more fresh and new, and its instead kinda samey or safe. But I can see as a new fan that it would still sounds pretty amazing.
Hoo boy this is a big meal. Can't say I'm too jazzed about it after the first listen but it'll take a while to digest. Still think Love is an Ocean and Summer's Ending Soon are top tier. But you have to wait over an hour for them lmao.
sentinel and chariot got my attention. more experimentation from the boys 10 years in, I assume there's some kind of narrative justification for a rave break gotta listen more!
Overall enjoy the album but agree it does feel samey. Mostly fine with it tho, still fun artwork is very uninspired compared to others
Gave the full thing a listen, and I think the singles were the biggest standouts. I’ll have to give it a few more spins. I still think it’s too long.
This is a great album to run to. Especially the middle to last third of the album where it's a bit more EDM
finally had the chance to sit down with this in full, and it's fantastic. the length is obviously a bit of a challenge, but there's an earnestness to this record that makes it feel like that was a justifiable decision. even as someone who really liked their last couple albums, i think they've found a really good middle ground here of appeasing fans of their earlier work while also taking their sound in a few new unique directions. i know they've talked about this record like it's a closing chapter on this phase of the band (they're not breaking up), so this feels like a good coda to the sounds of the first decade of their discography. really curious to see where they go from here.