Angles

Whilst not the weakest point in their discography at this time, that would be the entry before this, I do think this to be the most tepid entry in their discography at the time this came out.
I think First Impressions whilst not being a good album, makes sense in their context of their discography up to that point, coming off the back up a sophomore album than many people at the time felt failed to live up to the debut. The third album went bigger being longer than the first two album and tried experimenting with a new producer and new sounds.
The poor reception led to the longest wait in between albums, the resulting album coming out of this wait was Angles and I think this album really missed the mark on turning up to the occasion
Coming in at a very scant 34 minutes, making the biggest departure in sound at this point in their discography, harkening back pretty heavily at times to an 80s. This was a sound the band would expand, alter and refine for the next decade of their discography.
I think this is the problem with angles in that it sounds like a band very much finding its footing and laying down the foundations for the projects what would improve upon what was found here.
Whilst this album dispenses with a lot of the bloat that was found upon the previous album and it never comes close to hitting the lows of that album. I find this album lacks the highs of the previous three albums, I don’t think the highs on this album which are to me the first two songs and the closer never quite match up to an Ize Of The world, Hard To Explain or Reptilia.
I think the albums scantness is also a problem, it feels like the album never really gets going and the songs don’t come together in what feels like a meaningful way
Overall a mildly enjoyable if non essential strokes album
Fav tracks, Macchu Picchu, Under Cover of Darkness, Life Is Simple in The Moonlight