While New Misery was steeped in severity and perhaps a strained sense of needing to prove oneself, The Diet cuts off the pretentious fat. The resulting sound is inventive, fun, fresh, and perhaps Omori's best release to-date.
The Diet isn’t the sort of world-beating, over-the-top comeback effort that’s going to transform Omori into the king of Grant Park ... But it’s the most consistently satisfying front-to-back record Omori’s been a part of since Dye It Blonde, a reset that realigns him with his core strengths—namely, his flair for crafting songs that are cosmically ornate yet humbly down-to-earth.
The Diet isn't a quantum leap over New Misery, but it certainly represents a step forward for Cullen Omori, both as a songwriter and a performer, and as long as his love life remains problematic, he should have a great future ahead of him.
Uplifting and full of hope, ‘The Diet’ has Cullen Omori dusting himself down and looking toward brighter days while honouring the classic psych rock sound and creating another solid indie-rock album.
As it stands ... The Diet is a perfectly enjoyable listen. After starting on shaky ground, it seems as if Omori has found his legs and is prepared for what comes next. Of course, that may sound awfully similar to what came before, but Omori is so well-versed in this style that he’s sure to find a way no matter what.
Despite the impression given by the opening track, this is more an album for quiet summer evening reflections than for sunny scorchers.
Much like his debut effort, 'The Diet' has a few good songs on it, while the rest is skippable. Only real difference is, those few good songs don't even come close to the ones from 'New Misery.'
Favourite tracks: Four Years, Millennial Geishas, A Real You
Something about this album just didn't hook me. I enjoyed the artists previous album and so this was definitely worth checking out, but it really didn't hit the mark like I hoped that it would. So so affair but nothing outright bad about it.
Favorite track: Borderline Friends