Album Rating: 2.0

Yeah

KBTFU is pretty good actually

Album Rating: 2.0

They are all 2.5



Except TiA, which is a 3

Album Rating: 3.0

KBTFU is pretty good actually [2]



Pleasant 3.5er. Prob right around where this’ll end up

I do not understand what makes this not within spitting distance of TiA, I guess if you're absolutely married to the trace amounts of dm on that album this might not do it for ya but idk the songwriting is still all there far as I can tell

Album Rating: 3.0

Heavy dose of "to each their own", but nothing here comes close for me to the shifting builds of The Space for This, the jazz ebb-flow in Evolutionary Sleeper, the gorgeous bit in The Unknown Guest when the pseudo-chorus bit slides in and then kicks off into a quick dm burst.



The songwriting there just feels so perfectly fluid, but with these insane melodies laced throughout, and this doesn't come close to touching that on either score for me

Yee yee, i might have to check kindly bent next and see if I have any more hot takes on this band ;P

Album Rating: 4.5

porcupinetheater, not even Architects of Consciousness gets your jimmies worked up?

KBTFU is pretty good actually [3]

Album Rating: 3.0

“porcupinetheater, not even Architects of Consciousness gets your jimmies worked up?”



Don’t get me wrong, this is still mostly pre good, just doesn’t knock socks and flip nips the way TiA does on a regular basis. Plus a synth bass is never replacing Sean Malone

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Frankly I hate it when every critique of a new album exists solely within the comparison to old records. I guess all great bands are just doomed to live through this, some people really don't seem to be able to not look back.

why

Album Rating: 3.5

Because musicians deserve the chance to explore and change, and be appraised for that without people resorting to heavily genetic arguments?

i agree with that entirely

Album Rating: 2.0

Cynic definitely deserve to explore. One day they will find their true sound perhaps.

Album Rating: 4.5

Frankly I hate it when every critique of a new album exists solely within the comparison to old records. I guess all great bands are just doomed to live through this, some people really don't seem to be able to not look back.



agree completely

Album Rating: 3.0

The comparison to old records is purely as a reference point for the convo. With or without their prior discog this is a good record with some interesting songwriting that feels like it lacks cohesion and loses the emotional thread through it’s own wandering and more synthesized production.



Comparing it to TiA or whatever just helps quantify what that means. Would feel the same way regardless, but, Y’know it’s relevant to use a band’s past material in discussions of their current without the past acting solely as a measuring stick.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

It's very tricky to compare a record that came out just now to 15, 30 year old albums. It's no reference point for me, quite the opposite really. TIA is one of my all time favorites and not once I thought about it while exploring this new record. After all, when TIA itself came out people complained because "it's not Focus" and to me this just sounds like a lazy approach to new music in general. I mean it's very easy to put a new record and a landmark one aside and tell which one is better, just doesn't add much to the discussion for me. Idk if you get what I mean

Album Rating: 3.0

If that's not how the experience of listening it for yourself shakes out, fair enough, but you're stepping into some ad hominem waters framing any discussion of a band's (or any artist's, really) past in the context of new work as a universally cheapening exercise in nostalgia.



It's not lesser b/c "it's not Focus," but it can still be perceived as lacking on its own terms and the comparison to a past can elucidate why that might be, especially in this case, where the slow shifting of sound has been a prevalent framework for the band's entire career (Demos->Focus, Focus->Traced, etc.) You can disagree with it, too, but to say this doesn't share characteristics with their past work (i.e. relevant to tha discussion) doesn't really track.



Which, to that end - the radical shift implied by replacing 2 of the 3 creative minds after their tragic deaths and the way that directly cements a commentary on the relationship of the past with the present. God I fucking miss Malone.

Album Rating: 3.5

People always want to chase the dragon though. Ain't ever gonna get those exact moments of amazement that come with realising how splendid Focus is, people just want to re-live that shit and it ain't gonna happen the same way ever again. Onwards and upwards.