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My honest take is that the instrumentation and arrangements are largely really good and sometimes sublime but the vocals, lyrics, and sometimes the melodies themselves make the whole album almost tragically forgettable. It's actually really disappointing that the music is so good but that the "top" layer - the layer that is used here to give the music recognizable structure and a face - is so uninspired. Most of the vocals sound like Misch woke up, rolled over to face his smartphone, hit record, and started to sing the first melody that came to mind, all without even bothering to wipe the crust out of his eyes. I love a good subtle, almost monotonous or lightly inflected singer - but they have to be good, there has to be thought behind it, and it should meld with and add to the larger context, not be there simply to be there. The vocals add absolutely nothing to the music; they take away everything from it.
The lyrics only exacerbate the problem. From the title track:
"Can I make it clear
There's nothing to see here
The demons come and go
I know that with time they come around
Opened up a door
And I came back for more
It's too late to look back
Forever got this tag on me"
Or from "Tidal Wave":
"Everybody knows inside that this won't stop
The rain coming down tonight, we just watch
I know it's too late, I had so much I wanna say
We'll just have to wait
Everybody knows we're done as the lights go off
Had all the time in the world and now it's lost
The skies blood red is the last time you reach your cause
Skipping away"
I will skip over the fact that reads like something I might have written as a junior in high school while, I don't know, watching it rain from my bedroom window listening to Garbage or something... more important is it just seems so... perfunctory. Like they decided something needed some lyrics so they scribbled a few words down and called it a day...
I would enjoy the album a thousand times more if the vocals were removed. No exaggeration: just take off the vocals and I'd be in a totally different space. They're not needed. Most of the melodies aren't especially engaging; they add nothing to each song. The music is strong enough to stand on its own -- the instrumentals that *are* on the album are infinitely better than the songs with vocals, imo, and are probably the only thing that will keep me coming back to the album at all.
The drums are fire. A lot of the bass is really good, too. Some of the synths come off cheesy but I can live with that - I see the sound vision and appreciate it. But the album is marred by the vocals/lyrics/melodies, imo, and because an album should be more than the sum of its parts, not less, they really weight the total album down.
-thebigfunk
~ i could still snort you under the table ~
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