Highs: "Pressure Kids, Farewell to the," "Lucky Ones" (which still didn't need to be 7 minutes long), "Backed Out on the...," (stunning!!!!!) "Aging Faces/Losing Places" (gorgeous!!!!!) and actually quite a few parts of various 6 or 7 minute songs, none of which ever needed to be so long
Lows: "Frightening Lives" (unbearable, for me; seen them a few times, since this record dropped, and this song KILLS momentum, live...I have seen people leave shows!), "Bodhi Sappy Weekend" (not terrible, just a low), and then various points/decisions in songs which are at times great, at others beyond cringe-inducing: "Fucked Up Kid," "Big Love" ("restraint": ever heard of it, Kev?), "Too Beautiful to Fuck," a song called "Gang Bang Suicide" (which also runs for like 6:30), "When It Begins," and others
BTW: When will Kevin Drew stop pretending to be gay, to gain cred points? Fucking absurd, at this point. We all know you dated Feist, by now, dude! Jesus! It gets disrespectful, after a while.
Anyway, regarding the record, I should clarify that I think it's pretty solid! Probably a 6.7/10, with several songs/moments at/around 8 or 9/10. I just think that too much latter-day KD is a bad thing, too. The record goes on forever (for no reason), meaning that lots of individual songs also overstay their welcomes.
Take something like "Broke Me Up," which is three minutes of a great post-rock/twee song...and then 90 more seconds of really overdone nothing. Just endless recycling and histrionics. And why bother micing him, if he's just going to cough over the end of the track? Brutally overconsidered.
Again: plenty of good songs and moments, but a shocking lack of restraint. The self-titled record (not to mention the OutKast album I very consciously mentioned) suffered from the same thing. Somebody just has to come in and help these guys/this guy decide what stays in the studio. They can't let anything go, and while that sometimes helps, it more often hurts. I don't personally know Ohad Bentrechit, or whatever the fuck his name is, so I don't really care if there's such a great story behind one of his songs that Drew and the other three people in the control room just had to have it on the album. It's silly. And it's surprising, too, that Dave Newfeld, who was shown the door because of these very issues, has gone on to become quite the economical, focused producer! Consult Hey Venus! (a concise gem of a pop record by the Super Furry Animals), The Stars & Suns Sessions (a focused effort by Mexico's fuzzed-out Chikita Violenta) or Hold On Now, Youngster... (a taut twee-pop record by another Welsh band, Los Campesinos!) to witness irony in action.
Since becoming the de facto leader of BSS, Drew's gone a bit...wrong. Or I think so, anyway! His lack of confidence in his singing voice (dating all the way back to KC Accidental's perfect, split-LP) has unfortunately convinced him that the only way to overcome his shortcoming is to over-sing the SHIT out of every song he writes. It grates, after a while, and sadly works opposite his relatively strong songwriting instincts. He's a guy that needs somebody else to help him make choices as to what stays and what goes.
I personally think his voice was fine, if not stellar, in the olden times, but this new, lilting whisper-croon that he does just murders me. See "Gang Bang Suicide," which could've been great, or, you know...nearly every other song on the record.
Sorry to ramble, zoomer. Bear in mind that I don't hate the record. It just frustrates me more than the records I do hate, because I feel like this one could've been so much more! And, like I said...the songs I love, I ADORE!