blake mcgill

4/5. Great songwriting, great musicianship and overall themes are worthy of the QOTSA treatment. Great album. Each song could easily be 30-60 seconds shorter and the track structure is a little uneven. The really good stuff is all in the back end. Stick with it, it grows! I agree with comments saying each song has various flitters of past albums, Villains and Clockwork era get a good look in against some earlier era tendencies. Highlights are Time & Place, Made to Parade, Carnavoyeur and this weird section in Straight Jacket Fitting where it just starts to chug away and gets very Songs for the Deaf. Brilliant.