Score: 6/10
Manchester Orchestra has been making music together since 2004, and this is their fourth LP together. Manchester Orchestra is, in my opinion, best when shifting from varying emotions and tempos, going from an acoustic-led song into a stomping, heavy Southern-inspired song. That element of there song writing was lost on this album, and instead it only stayed on one side, the loud driving rock side. While they do it well, they weren’t able to put together an album that varied enough throughout. The songs began blending together, and there was a lack of standout tracks, aside from the single, ‘Top Notch’ which brought the best parts of the album into one strong track.
This album also lacked the strength of good production, it ended up sounding muffled and dirty, with the bass and guitar making a sludgy mess at the bottom, and nearly nothing audible from the drums except an occasional cymbal here and there. If this album were cleaned up on the production end, and had added varying tempos and styles like was seen on there last two albums, ‘Simple Math’ and ‘Mean Everything to Nothing’ the album could have been very successful and catchy. Instead it just began to wear me down, as each track stayed on the same level, with little difference
Favorite Tracks: 1, 3
RIYL: Anthony Green, Brand New, Kevin Devine, Bad Books
