Michael Welch

Fantastic...and fan-service heavy...return to form after the misstep of Scaled & Icy. Clancy is, as other reviewers have noted, the lovechild of Blurryface and Trench. Lyrically it's a treatise on the suffering of, recovery from, and fear of falling back into the states of anxiety and self-destruction. Lavish is a poppy earworm that won't easily leave your head. Overcompensate is a tour de force. Unfortunately, there's less bombast on this album than Trench, but the songs are tighter, have more to say, and show a natural progression for the two musicians. Begs for multiple listens to truly settle in, and functions more strongly as an album versus a collection of random songs.