I did enjoy hearing Jetty Bones' cooing voice on "Icicles (Morning Glow)" but other than that there aren't that many songs to phone home about. There aren't even rock ballads a la "Minnesota" and while the closer "Hallmark" tries to mix aggression with toned-down indie licks to somewhat appeal to folks like me, it's just not the impact I expected from the band this time around.

Overall, not as diverse a record so points lost there, but definitely a move that gives this new iteration much more character.

Good Nature is mellow and laid-back, everything they intended it to be. Hopefully, they add a hard rock or indie edge on the next effort as I think that sound suits them better.

Chapter and Verse misses the mark in the sense that what it tries to achieve, Conduit already did in 2013. This album feels like a repetition of that and loses steam along the way.

Real to Reel would have benefited from more diversity.

As intimate as he gets, there's too strong a withdrawn feeling and one which severely takes away from an otherwise decent effort.

Zipper Down on its own is a single short burst of energy stretched too thin.

Apart from running repetitive with no real memorable tracks in the back-end, it's the cheese factor that ends up hampering the show.

This isn’t horrible, but I can really only recommend Dead to the World to hardcore Helmet fans. The rest of you should just go listen to Meantime.

As it is, this gives us too many long, dull spots across the nine tracks and 48 minute run time. To be fair, there is some really good stuff here. There’s at least enough that hardcore Ministry fans are going to want to buy Amerikkkant. You just have to wade through a fair amount of filler to find it.

What's tough is that to get to the second half, you really have to drag yourself through some disappointing stuff earlier. If you can make it through, you'll find Zero isn't the disaster everyone thought it would be.

They had a pop-punk grit and an edgier take on their 2012 release but The Finer Things just falls short of the potential that State Champs should be exploiting by now.

It’s less dynamic, less technical, less energetic, less everything.

Thrashing Through the Passion is easily the band’s softest album to date. Where most Hold Steady albums fill the room with sound, there’s a lot of quiet and negative space on this album. While the band’s other albums wrap you up in an awkward hug of emotions and drag you through to a catharsis, this album is passive.

Is it a bad album? Nope, but it does feel a tad rickety and like maybe cutting a track or two would have helped the momentum better.

The songs are well constructed and the playing sounds authentic. ... The issue comes when Corgan begins to sing, and it’s not his nasally voice that doesn’t work. ... He still, too often, thinks his voice deserves to be the loudest in the room. He’s still a city boy hung up on big ideas.

Ye doesn’t feel like that reinvention. If anything, this album feels safe, a word I imagine is insulting to the artist. ... However, Kanye has an incredible ear for production, more apparent on Pusha T’s DAYTONA. There are some excellent moments on Ye, but with only twenty-four minutes of music, some doesn’t cut it.

This isn't a swing and a miss, nor is it a home run. It is an emphatic, resounding and diminutive crack to the wall, with a band that knows how to diligently round base cooly, calmly and collectively.

While Return to the Moon is good, it’s not the momentous occasion the next National album is sure to be. It is, however, a refreshing change of pace for its well-defined members.

Before a Million Universes is made up of good songs. Certain ones, you'll want to listen to over and over. But as a full record with two centered roadblocks, it needs you to earn the experience.

Happiness Is has some great tracks, but ultimately is probably the group's weakest showing overall.

Back On Top isn't a bad listen but it falls short of that benchmark they set in the past.

When it tries, it succeeds but when it doesn't, it really crashes into the ground face first.

While some of it lacks creativity, expression, and comes off a tad bland, you do get a sense of what could have been, had they just unchained themselves a bit more. Ironically, the songs that stand out the most here are the ones that ape tracks off Sing The Sorrow.

Ultimately, it's not a bad album, but not the greatest either.

The result: an album with zero purpose but worth a listen.

These are songs about everyday life at its most basic level. You'll have to decide for yourself whether that's enough.

Overall, the album isn't a bad listen. Symphonic. Orchestral. But compared to the last outing, it's lacking.