COMET HIGHWAY

Perhaps it's the pressure, self-inflicted or otherwise, of the album-a-year release schedule. Perhaps it's the demands of songwriting and touring. Perhaps it's the blind insistence on 10+ minute tracks for 6 minute ideas. Perhaps it's the logical culmination of progressively weakening albums since the knot was tied on the "Within/Without Trilogy". While the DICE sound has essentially remained intact, the group has abandoned its commitment to the song in favor of a "PHISH" in space approach. When it works, it is glorious, as in "Every Open Window" with its compelling combination of melodic themes and space jam. But more often than not this effort just sounds bloated, the awkwardness of the group's reference to the Universe as entity, which we overlooked until now, fully exposed by ennui, as we wait desperately and in vain for a trademark hook. The dense and multilayered DICE remains, which works for as long as you want background music that sounds progressive enough in the car, but if you crave more than the superficial, you should pull off the "Comet HIghway" and load up almost any of their earlier efforts.