I will preface my review by saying that I really like TDH and the previous Acts I-III. Color spectrum contained a handful of awesome tracks (mostly concentrated in Violet) but ultimately felt like mostly filler to me. I thought Migrant was pretty good but could have been a lot better. I was very excited for Act IV but in the end disappointed.
Waves and Night on the Town are really greatI will preface my review by saying that I really like TDH and the previous Acts I-III. Color spectrum contained a handful of awesome tracks (mostly concentrated in Violet) but ultimately felt like mostly filler to me. I thought Migrant was pretty good but could have been a lot better. I was very excited for Act IV but in the end disappointed.
Waves and Night on the Town are really great tracks. Unfortunately they are the best tracks on the album and the rest of it sounds like a tired re-tread. Is there anybody here, and End of the World get honorable mention. Casey is at his best when forging new ground and coming up with fresh ideas, as in the above mentioned songs. The rest of the material just didn't click with me--instrumentation wasn't very original, not really any standout melodies. In fact the entire rest of the album after track 7 just doesn't really go anywhere.
Without a doubt you will appreciate the raw lyrical character and instantly comfortable rhythms of "Waves", as well as the instant classic melodic chorus of "Night on the Town" (not to mention it's rather interesting orchestral arrangements).
But beyond that I'm just left with...not a whole lot. I think Casey is struggling to come up with new ideas for this story and the established structure of the narrative is limiting his ability to come up with new things. Notice that with color-spectrum, there was still a "structure" imposed on the material, which was that each "set" of songs had to adhere to a particular mood. Even Migrant, supposedly unbound, still had an extremely structured feel to the arrangements and instrumentation.
Basically, after watching this band for several years now, it seems that Casey is being held back by something, and from some of the lyrics on Migrant I would wager it is his struggle with faith. He has a wonderful ear for melody, which we know for sure because we have a good number of songs in his back catalogue with some very emotionally-driven hooks, complex melody and harmony working together. He has the talent, and so do his band-mates. So why isn't their music going anywhere or building towards anything? I think he needs to let off the reigns, stop trying to control. Stop trying to micro-manage his music and loosen up.… Expand
Act IV: Rebirth in RepriseYour Score0 out of 10User Score
