This is a tough one for me to grapple with. There are some awesome highs. And I don’t really think there are songs I dislike, other than maybe São Paulo and Timeless. But there are definitely some songs that don’t fully capture my attention. So, in the end, I do wish it was like 30 minutes shorter. But again, that’s mostly a me thing. Setting aside my own idiosyncrasies, this is really good. Wake Me Up, Open My Heart, and then that final stretch from Drive onward are mainly what I mean when I talk about highs.
The first third is cool. The middle third I forget. The final third either bores me or wears me out. I need to chop it up in a playlist to make it the 10 track LP I’ll listen to.
I think most of the flab is in the middle - remove "enjoy the show," "timeless" and "given up on me" and "drive" and you've got a more manageable (though still long) 66-minute length, and you don't lose any of the key transitions.
I really like this a lot. Not a fan of the features at all though. I thought timeless was a terrible single and i didnt like Sao Paulo as a single either, but it works a lot better in the context of the album. He should have released Open Hearts a month or so ago and Wake Me Up the monday before the album dropped.
I'm a pretty casual fan of his and I thought this was pretty good but I had to listen in three sessions lmao. making song transitions such a key part of your sound and then making an album this long was definitely a choice there's some really great stuff on here still (loved Reflections Laughing) but for my money After Hours still his best work
Some great stuff on here - Obviously far, far, far too long as everybody else has said Sao Paulo might be the most annoying song i've ever heard - It's like Baby Shark for hipsters
This is really growing on me. Definitely still feels bloated but the first seven tracks in particular are absolutely brilliant, imo. On its own, Sao Paolo is pretty average, but somehow on the album it just really works. Open Hearts is lodged in my brain right now. One of his best tracks full stop.
I can’t wait for people to get into the ending stretch of this record. I’m so surprised there’s no Tom Krell (htdw) credit on Drive, the verses are straight Total Loss lol
Yeah, it picks up again in the back third or so. My main gripe is that I think the album slumps massively between tracks 8 & 13. Don’t really like any of those, and getting rid of them would make this so much better and more digestible.
Disagree that it slumps in the middle. Given Up On Me and I Can’t Wait To Get There are brilliant songs. Only songs I’d consider getting rid of would be Sao Paulo and Timeless, although the former works a lot better in the context of the album than as a single. This album is long but it doesn’t bother me because it’s amazing from front to back. This is a very early contender for AOTY imo.