Hey gents!
It's a pretty good record but not the next step I think some of us were expecting from the band. I think a lot of long time fans are shocked by some of the first few tracks but personally I'm shocked that they really only mix up the formula a bit on about four tracks - the rest is pure, unfiltered MMJ with a little less reverb and 150% more Skynard.
This said, there's nothing bad here. It's all pretty good to great. The title track is a fantastic evolution of the band's template, "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Part One" is a nice bit of fluffy pop music and the second part almost sounds like the band was listening to modern Balaeric music like A Mountain of One and Studio. As expected, "Highly Suspicious" has been a highly polarizing track - I'm a little disappointed with the studio version as it strips out some of the layers and wanky riffs from the live performances and goes very compressed n' minimal in comparison... it's almost as if they wanted to create a Queens of the Stone Age song with some Prince touches. You have to admit it's difficult to get the chant in the chorus of the track out of your head.
But I have to admit that songs like "I'm Amazed" and "Thank You Too" sound like a band doubling back on itself and I'm not surprised that super fans like them. For me, these are the kinds of tracks where the live experience (which is admittedly STRONG with this band) will probably make or break them for me.
So yeah. We're in a holding pattern here! MMJ are taking baby steps.