Very very uninspired

Weird, but in a good way. The title track is immense

Modest Mouse are an odd project for me. They have a sound that ultimately doesn't really agree with me at all, but I do find myself truly loving some of their stuff in spite of that. This album is no different. It grates on my ears for half of the runtime, and yet there are moments that really grab me in a way that only my favourite music does.

There are some of his best tracks ever on this record and it gets significant marks for that alone. The rest of this is absolute trash

There's an interesting sound lurking throughout this album but unfortunately the production is so awful at points it just never manages to capture my attention

This album gets off to a REALLY rough start so I'm not surprised most people seem to have dropped it or written it off immediately. But sticking with it, the middle and latter half of this record are really quite good and are definitely not deserving of the infamy this project gets

The idea and sound is there, it just needs some considerable fleshing out

Such a mixed bag

After the barn-stormer of the opening track I had high hopes for this record, but unfortunately what followed were some awkwardly constructed attempts at capturing a sound from a by-gone era. The talent is there, but the musical acumen is not. Not yet at least

Finishes so much stronger than it starts. There's far too much bland, samey material in the first half, and a lot of really really poor writing to boot

Such a disappointment after the revelation that was Autopoietica. Even manages to make Natalia and Silvana sound mediocre which is borderline criminal

The bonus tracks are HAIM back to their absolute best

I'm not entirely sure what Kevin did to earn this ire, but the recurring claims of this album being more of the same or boring are truly confuddling. It's not his best, but it's still a solid listen

Most of the features bring nothing new to the song, they just feel tacked on. Though the Yves, Zara Larsson and JT features are surprising highlights

The lyrics are truly, truly awful, and while the music is an improvement over The (first half of) Tortured Poets Department it still feels like a caricature of the TS monolith.

Extremely strong in the first half, but loses all it's energy in the second leg

Edit: Must have been in a bad mood that day as on relisten this is great!

I can't say I'm a fan of the vocals, but musically this is some top notch emo.

Musically it's not bad, but the writing is truly horrendous at times

Stylistically this is very interesting and engaging, and the writing is compelling if a little heavy handed, but the technical component leaves something to be desired

Disc 1 is a near masterpiece, Disc 2 is an afterthought