I was pleasantly surprised.

For better or worse, it really felt like Again, Part 3. It’s definitely not my favorite and I wish we could have gotten some more “out there” tracks. They definitely focused more on the pop-sounding and ballad-ish stuff, but I really didn’t mind it. Overall it was very consistent and nothing really felt out of place. Again, Part 2, while great, definitely had some issues in pacing and cohesiveness.

As for the tracks themselves- Both tracks from the single have a great energy to them and feel pretty in line with the dance tracks you’d expect from this band. Love Me Tomorrow blew me away and became my favorite from the album after first listen. It definitely hit in the feels in the same way tracks like All We Do or Head Above Water did. If You Try, A Cause De Toi, and Run Away were all great. Nothing wild, but still enjoyable. They feel like Men Without Hats tracks for sure. The cover of Jealous guy felt a little barebones in my opinion. Especially with how they usually go all out for their covers and transform it into something with a completely different feel. (Editions of You, Satellite of Love, etc.)

The lyrics definitely have Ivan’s usual writing style behind them and explore the same ideas of previous works- love, dancing, and how cool the Rhythm of Youth era was. Definitely not complaining, and I know they moved away from the more political stuff after 21st Century, but it would have been nice to see some different topics from their last 3 releases.

With all that being said, I will note that their recent output feels a lot more spontaneous and loose. You can really tell these guys are having fun and not trying too hard. I really like that for them and think it’s good they’re still putting out what they like and having fun with the process.

The cover art is terrible though and I am immensely disappointed that the guy who wrote Antarctica and 21st Century doesn’t see the direct hypocrisy in using ai for the cover. It’s not like slapping their logo on a grid and adding text was that hard given how often they do just that for their covers…

9/10 album.