REAL EMOTION (aka Mo cries lots about the new Paper Route)

feelings on the new Paper Route after the first listen: the range in sonic influences and genres is striking me immediately. the four years in between albums definitely made a difference. i do think that it's the poppiest thing they've ever done - although they've also done a great job of carrying over the ambient electronic atmospherics from Absence and the haunted gospel aesthetic from The Peace of Wild Things - and that does come at the expense of thematic cohesion, at least on first listen. (to be fair it's also harder to do that across sixteen songs, compared to twelve/ten for their last two albums.)

honestly? i really don't care. every song on this has lines and hooks and bits that sink into me. JT is contorting his voice into so many characters - Sunday School preacher, prom night crooner, football stadium front-man, furious woodland ghost - sometimes within the same song. (also holy shit that falsetto.) if The Peace of Wild Things (one of my all-time favorites) felt like worship in an abandoned forest church, this feels like the band splattering bruised paint colors across a highway overpass. look at all of the shades we can throw together! look at all of the things we can do! i'm so happy about that. i feel like i grew up with this band, and i'm so proud of them for coming this far. i really hope a ton of people get to discover this album and build a relationship with it.

threw together a Youtube playlist for the entire album with all the songs in order, for anybody who's interested. the three i'd immediately go to are "Writing On The Wall" (the best Muse song they never wrote) "Untitled," and "Mona Lisa":