Exploitopia

this latest effort from THD falls in a pretty similar caveat that seems to continue getting deeper as their career continues. as was also heard on 2020's "Your Parents Are Sellouts" (an album i still need to revisit), most tracks here seem dark just for the sake of it. these themes have undeniably been a key part of the band, yet it's always been delivered with a certain nuance that's lost when almost every song is named something like "You're Doing Too Much Cocaine" and each one says the title everywhere it can.
the synth focused direction could've been something to set Exploitopia apart, yet its only for a third of the tracklist, meaning if the last one didn't feel enough of a thrown together compilation, this album goes from acoustic sections that'd just be a bridge of a earlier project ("Crooked Heart") to a rather tame master of puppets sounding synth punk track ("A Million Bots"), which leads to another issue.
whereas songs from their late 00's - early 10's output evolved and were often very dynamic, practically everything here feels stuck in one progression, riff or verse, leading to this. a passably listenable record, but nothing i'd be really ever compelled to give another shot.