MANIFEST DESTINY

Wow! These ratings by my fellow reviewers are... shocking...

GOODSALL and Co. playing virtual catch-up to then-modern styles and... phenomena... is not a good look. It just sounds tacky (mostly at the frontend of the album, by the way). Hear it for yourself: the cheesiest, faux-horror, MJ- calling synth-stabs on "Stellerator"(?!). The most workable of this is on one of the strongest tracks on the album, "Drum Ddu", but can I really recommend it?

The next track (from the top), "Virus", feels far more confident in itself. Still not anything of interest. If anything, I must say the production feels a little hollow (this is really the worst of this sin on the album). The disappointment continues on "XXL". We get a glimpse back into the band's regular confidence in the title track with spanky drums and the strange, virtuosic noodlings one would hope to get from Percy JONES. Really, after the first half of the album, thank God!

The second half continues with the beautiful, spacy "Five Drops", with ethereal vibes (by Marc WAGNON) and keys. And eventually, we're basically business as usual, with the very nice "Operation Hearts And Minds". Like, seriously. So thankful for what I'm hearing at this point in time. This album was all over the place. Totally inconsistent, especially as I'm now directly comparing it to their second-to-last, X-Communication.

Overall, just a sad final statement by, still, a great band. Best I can say is that, if they took the second half of the album and had released an EP of just that, it would be one of their best.

RIP John (1953-2021). Certainly no disrespect.

True Rate: 2.5/5.0

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