Gift of Screws, aside from a few relative duds like the title track, was way under-noticed.

“It’s more of a cultural crisis than a midlife one; we’re talking social disappointment, not agoraphobia.” Oh, the lot of the bearded 35-yr-old, which of course = society. My god.

And what IS it with water? The fact that nothing is an easier or more loaded reference to dump in a song, most likely. Or wonder about in a music review that strains mightily to be something more when it isn’t even a decent version of the thing it’s supposed to be.

This is awful writing. Awful. “Not the best song, but maybe it’ll get the kids to check out Eno between bong hits.” What? No idea how to write about music in any technical sense, nor in any context beyond the painfully obvious.

I dunno. It really may be me. I want to like it but I just don’t find this new stuff nearly as good as Alligator or Boxer, which I admit liking a little less than Alligator. I loved both those albums on first listen, and it’s not like this is some sort of departure where I miss the old stuff because the new stuff is different. It sounds like everything they’ve done brilliantly in the past is kinda the same here, and just less compelling all around for it.

Eh. They’ve taken this as far as it can go. The vocals are getting really close to self-parody, take the usual drums, the usual feel, add the now-standard horns, eh. Really not in the same ballpark as their best stuff.