3.8 - Given all the acclaim surrounding this album I was expecting so much more. I enjoy some of the slapdash swagger that's underpinned with sumptuous orchestral arrangements. At times it sounds like the band is about to implode and can only move forward with the support of backing studio players. It's like they hired a string ensemble at great expense and the players arrived to the studio on time with their instruments tuned and their parts well-rehearsed, but the the band itself was visibly absent. Several hours later the band finally shuffles in, still clearly loaded from an all night bender, smelling ripe and needing a shave. They announce that they're ready to start recording and proceed to noodle through the first verse before nodding off into the chorus. Their cover of "Femme Fatale" is particularly confusing - it sounds like a mike check? "Holocaust" is like something from a high school talent show written and sung by that one girl who cuts herself. To its credit, there's a roiling, unsettled atmosphere the likes of which I've heard on no other record. I certainly cannot write it off but having listened to it twice today just to torture myself to write these words on what I think I just heard, I don't foresee returning soon.