Starts off very strong, but quickly fades into a long drag before being saved by the last few tracks. 1 is indeed an amazing intro track and 2 is not far behind it, both displaying the band's mix of post punkey goodness instrumentally, and soft spoken, fx'd vox that remind of dream pop. They work to varying degrees: whilst ok on 1 I do feel like classic, more gothy post punk vocals would have served the song a lot better by not giving out as much of a teenagey flavour, but on 2 they work like a charm, then on 3 not at all. 3 remains very cool instrumentally, and so the opening trio is the album's peak. 4 is the first song that feels a bit bland instrumentally, and 4-6 feel like ok but generic songs which gets draggy near the end before 7 gets actually boring. Thankfully 8 saves thigns a little by returning to the style of 1-3 - which feels like a relief more than than the song feels cool in and of itself, and 9 continues this by opening on a nice prominent beat + bass riff that unfolds not as well into a cool but kind of amateur-ish feeling closing track. Saves face, but really beyond the opening trio there isn't enough here to justify more than a 3.45
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