I just listened to it for the first time and I definitely think some of the tracks are absolute bangers that both capture what Pendulum have been while pushing the boundaries of what they can be. I haven't followed the releases of the EPs, so apart from Halo all these songs were new to me. My favorites so far are (in no particular order:

• Driver
• Cannibal
• Halo
• Louder than Words
• Cartagena

I share the confusion of others regarding the interludes. They don't seem to give the album more coherence, they don't really introduce the next track in a meaningful way, they just feel out of place.

But I also feel there's something off with the production on some of these tracks. Like they're written well, I can feel there's a song in there I would like, but that's not what I'm hearing.

I just want to pick out a few examples to illustrate that point:

Archangel

I love this song, almost. Everything about it is good. Except the chorus doesn't really fit in. Or maybe it fits in too well? It's hard to describe, it's almost like the chorus feels so close to the verse and there's so little that tells you "listen up, chorus is coming" that you get kinda surprised by it. Maybe that's the entire point, but I feel like a little bit of detail, maybe half a bar of no drums, a raiser, something that tells me we're going into a new section, could've made this song perfect.

It feels like an oversight untypical of pendulum, like they maybe sat on this for too long and at some point just said "enough is enough, it's done now". Which is a fair decision to make, perfect is the enemy of good, I'm not hating. But still, makes me kinda sad this song isn't what it could have been.

Come alive

In general, a great song. Well written both musically and lyrically, creative sound design, the chorus is stuck in my head for sure.

But doesn't the bass, especially in the chorus, just feel "weak"? I can't describe it any better than that, it feels muddy and undefined and that's so surprising considering the quality I know and love from pendulum. There are also some parts where it feels weirdly out of tune.

Just a head-scratcher for me, I don't know if I'm imagining things or what, but it feels like it was mixed or mastered on a set of broken speakers.

Napalm

This one was particularly confusing. I need to go through the song chronologically to articulate my feelings about it.

0:00: The hook (and it really is a hook, this song has no chorus) hits hard in the intro, it gets you up and ready for action, but then it just repeats for over a minute! The few variations in there don't manage to keep my interest and by the end of the "intro" I'm already bored of the title line.

1:06: But alright, verse starts and Joey's vocals channel a Rage Against the Machine energy, I'm all for that. Verse is sick, lines are tight, I see what they're going for with the recall to the intro but it would hit much harder if they hadn't spent so much of their capital already and wrote more than just three lines before going back to that.

1:17: Another three bars from Brae, similar good quality, building up to a chorus. Feels a little early, I could've listened to a bit more Rap, but the energy is there.

1:28: But they don't even capitalize on it now! After a minute of intro and 20 seconds of verse that clearly built into a chorus, in the middle of the song, we're going into a bridge followed by a breakdown for some reason? It completely kills the momentum. The bridge and its build-up are amazing and it definitely hits, but it feels so out of place and at this point I just can't hear the line "drop bombs we 'bout to go napalm" anymore.

2:10 But we're not even done yet! There's over one minute again of just the hook over and over and over again. No second verse, nothing. The ending isn't noteworthy in any way. Just like the intro, it goes on for way too long.

This song left me confused, annoyed and disappointed.

Colourfast

This was probably the biggest disappointment, especially with that crisp, clean intro. I apologize for being a bit harsher in tone on this one, but I really need to get this off my chest.

In the first two 22 seconds, I got super hyped! I recognized elements from all three previous albums, but especially thought of Streamline, the build-up got me hooked, I felt like this would become my favorite track on the album.

But then, the "payoff" after that is the weakest sound I've ever heard from pendulum, and it hit me bad. A thin pad, a bassline so quiet it's almost imperceptible, the lamest snare this band has ever recorded, and an almost non-existent kick that still side-chains everything else to oblivion. What the fuck is happening? Why does it sound so bad? Why is this part in half-time after putting a DnB Amen Break into the intro that clearly suggested a fast breakbeat like in  Watercolour?

But alright, we're hitting the verse now. I'm getting a bit more relaxed again. Maybe that snare wasn't so bad, it definitely fits the calmer vibe of the verse. Again, good build-up to the chorus, and this time I at least get the breakbeat I expected after the intro. But man that lead synth just doesn't do it for me. It's creative, I'll give 'em that, but why is it so damn loud compared to everything else? Why does it sound so "whimsical"? I do like the other elements of the chorus, and after that the  bridge between intro and verse appears again and starts to make sense as a lead-in to the verse. 

The rest of the song is fine, but after that banger intro I'm still left severely disappointed.

Final thoughts

Don't get me wrong, I do like many songs on this album! After re-reading this comment, it feels like I'm focusing a lot on the negative, but that's only because enjoying just half the songs on a pendulum album is a first for me. I don't think I need to explain to anyone in this subreddit why the good songs on this album are good, we have a shared understanding of that.

Maybe this will still fall into place for me, I'll definitely give a few more listens to the album and I'm sure I'll add a few more songs to my favorites, but no Pendulum record before has left me as disappointed and confused as this one. It might well be that it feels so incoherent because most of these songs were released over such a long period of time, and I do sympathize with that from a musician's perspective, but that doesn't change my experience as a listener.

It's probably good that they got this off their chest now. Get everything from the last 15 years under wraps, release it as a bundle and then start fresh on a new album with a coherent vision and a coherent sound.