Ranges from rowdy and rambunctious to quiet and pretty. While it's fairly solid the whole way through, I wouldn't mind if a little more of the album was as exciting and dynamic as the opening track.
Very nice production, crisp and clean but with plenty of warmth. They are clearly very competent at playing their instruments, but in terms of actually writing interesting songs or parts, there just isn't enough personality to back up the simplicity and repetition.
There's some cool riffs and solid drumming buried in here but it's very washed out in the final product. I think this album could possibly be elevated by cutting a few tracks and trimming down the elements that are present, when it tries to throw everything at you all at once all the time it lessens the impact of what could be huge moments in a different context. Also just a personal gripe but I find the vocals too grating for how persistent they are.
There's not really any one specific thing that I would point to as being exceptionally bad here. The writing is fine, the playing and performances are adequate, the production is nice enough. It's really just that listening to it brings out the same feelings in me as forced smiles and small talk.
So much sonic variation that still manages to feel like a cohesive and consistent journey. It's very colourful and textured with just enough going on at any time to keep it interesting without ever feeling like it's overdoing it. It helps the flow of the album a lot that it draws from so many different styles and moods as to keep it feeling refreshing from song to song.
This is a great example of an album that manages to do a lot with very little. There is very simple, stripped back instrumentation and straight forward song writing the whole way through, but the lyrics, melodies and production choices all feel so laser focussed on giving each track its own strong sense of identity.
There are some really fun lively tracks on here. Production wise it's helped along by unique sounds and instruments unique to individual tracks which help them carve out their own place in the album as a whole. There are pretty strong melodies the whole way through and cool, moving baselines under chunky pop rock chord progressions. While the album is very strong for the most part, I feel they could have cut it down a song or two, even maybe shortened some of the tracks just a tad.
It doesn't necessarily do anything new but what it does really well is refine the hell out of everything it does do. I'm definitely much more fond of the second half but the earlier tracks are solid enough.
I actually don't mind the returning motifs too much, especially the final track. There is some fun to be had here but nothing that grabs me too much.
Full of well crafted melodies and compositions, this somehow manages to avoid common pop cliches while still being such a catchy album. It manages to balance fun, bouncy tracks with lush production and soft somber moments so well. It never feels like it dwells too long on anything and manages to keep engagement the whole run through. Any album that can go straight from Sloop John B to God Only Knows deserves high praise.
