The drums thankfully hit harder than they did on ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, but this – their shortest record; their record with the most filler; their first record of new material in a decade – suggests that they’re running out of ideas. Other than “Peasantry”‘s menace to triumph, there isn’t anything evocative about any of this, or if it is evocative, it’s the same thing they’ve been evoking for two decades now but worse. The counterpoint between the descending guitar and string section turning more and more buoyant of “Piss Crowns Are Trebled” from 5:53 – 6:53 is the album’s best mais c’est tout.
C+
Oof this makes me sad. I had high hopes for this one. Mr. 1537 was off to see them in concert recently, we’ll have to see how things fare in a live setting, when he posts his review!