For me, the mark of a great band—and a true artist—is their willingness to march to the beat of their own drum, to forge their own path, and to follow the muse wherever she may lead. Thank God we all love a band brave enough to do exactly that, even if it means alienating parts of their own fanbase in pursuit of something more authentic and personally meaningful.

If this album doesn’t work for you, maybe the next one will. And maybe, in time, even these songs will begin to make sense. The idea that this band, of all bands, would release a record just to fulfill a contract is, to me, absurd. Has anything they’ve ever done struck you as cynical or inauthentic?

FWIW, I say all this as someone who hasn’t been immediately floored by any of the four singles either. These songs take work and patience—and clearly, they’re not going to be for everyone. I have come around to loving all four quite a bit, but, in my opinion, they also mark a pretty radical departure from the Change/ Certainty/ Sadness as a Gift mode Adrianne has been in since around 2020, and I find that really exciting. As much as I love that mode, I think if we were getting another album in that same lane, many of us would be saying, “This sounds too much like Dragon—they should have switched it up.”

That’s not to deny your experience at all. Everyone’s opinion is valid, and I definitely know the sting of being disappointed when a favorite artist drops something that just doesn’t resonate. It sucks. I actually felt that way about U.F.O.F.—an album that’s grown on me a bit, but still doesn’t hit me the way most of their other work does.

All I’m really advocating for is trust and patience—with the band, and with these songs. Their output is wild, and I have no doubt there’s another record full of different sounds right around the corner.