Dominated by competent but somewhat self-indulgent guitars. Distorted vocals sound like a generic Kurt Cobain, and are usually a little submerged under the guitars. In fact, the whole album is heavy on the kind of distortion that makes everything sound like it’s underwater. Most of the time the lyrics are pretty hard to make out, which is a good thing. Many tracks are long. Sounds a little like Tool, but with long contemplative stretches. Recommend 1, 3 and 8. I didn’t parse any FCC’s, but the sticker says tracks 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

1: Soft chime sounds, elegiac underwater-sounding guitar melody. After about a minute of this a guitar countermelody comes in. Growly guitar and drums at about 1:30. Instrumental. Lovely. Not soft all the way through. At the end, it goes very quiet with chimes, then sounds like a new song for about 30 seconds. (4:18)
2: Loud from the beginning. Washy guitars become rhythmic. At 1:30 vocals appear, sort of buried in sound. Not super-easy to understand the lyrics. Ooh-ooh sky-ish background vocals. Distorted, undistinguished vocals. Pretty long. (6:39)
3: Ominous chimey intro that sounds like what plays in the child’s bedroom before the monster breaks in. Enter the monster, in the form of washy percussion, distorted vocals and growly but tuneful guitars. Like most monsters, it’s not as scary as you were expecting, and kind of exciting. Ending gets kind of Tool-ish. Reprise intro. About 6 seconds of silence at the end. (4:19)
4: Quiet ambient intro. Quiet percussion. Quiet psychedelic guitars. Distorted underwater vocals. Goes on forever. Wounded cat guitar sounds around 5:00. Guitarist is having a Hendrix moment, with the usual result. Guitar heavy. Nearly instrumental. (9:59)
5: Starts out mellow, with a gently moving bass line. Mellow all through. (3:58)
6: Vocals come in almost immediately. Lyrics are easier to understand than usual, which turns out not to be a virtue (lack meter + meaning). My labmate says it sounds like Metallica. I guess he would know. (6:00)
7: Nice drum intro. Awful decipherable lyrics. Nice broken rhythms in guitars and vocals. (5:22)
8: Heroic guitar lines. Corny lyrics “Do you believe it’s true / There’s got to be / Something better than this.” Pretty catchy and listenable, if your sense of shame doesn’t get in the way. (5:32)
9: Underwater piano. Mellow. (2:49)
10: High shimmery guitars Indecipherable vocals. Mostly mellow, mostly instrumental. Enya-ish ending. (8:30)
11: Swimming with dolphins. And a drum set. Um, and guitars. (9:04)
12: Sweet and low. About 35 seconds of near-silence at the end. (8:59)
-Kathryn