Pretty much where I am too. I find myself liking to really liking about 2/3 of this album, but my level of investment is so different this time that the intangible listening experience feels the most underwhelming of any PJ record to date. Which isn't to say I've lost interest in the band, or that I'm not more or less happy with the album we got. It's just...different.Birds in Hell wrote:I'm just not willing to spend the time trying to uncover hidden depths in songs that I'm already certain aren't any good.
I do like "Yellow Moon," though. I said it earlier in the thread but I feel like of all the songs this is the one that suffers worst from O'Brien's clean-shaven, one-size fits all production approach--this type of meditative, bluesy ballad rarely benefits from having its edges sanded off the way they are here. Mike's guitar solos are painfully inappropriate, and they speak poorly to his versatility as a player, reinforcing the idea that wailing metal solos way high up on the neck represent the extent of his range as a soloist. I hear this as having should have been a grainy, live-in-the-room performance with maybe just Ed, Stone, and Jeff, or an electric slow burn in the style of "Long Road" or "Cold Confession," something more atmospheric that gives Ed's performance a chance to pick up some steam. The composition is there, though, and I can make allowances for the rest of the stuff in my head. It's in the upper half of the record for me.
He always did though, he just changed them a little.