I made the mistake of reading other reviews while listening, and now "over the top Neil Diamond" is just a lingering thought that I can't get out of my head. The vocal affectations and even some of the type of lyrics do very much read as Neil Diamond, but the music combined with the delivery have some kind of almost manic additional quality. Either way, I've never heard anyone else deliver things quite like Neil Diamond, but this is probably the closest I've heard. What I will say is that David Ackles definitely didn't shy away from experimenting and taking risks here. The music is dramatic and could definitely pass as a quirky 70s stage musical; I haven't ever heard anything quite like this outside of musical theater spaces. And while I like musical theater and discovering rare obscurities, and while some of the songs struck me as interesting and even a couple as strangely beautiful, this overall ended up just being kind of not my thing.