Hmm, the lack of arrangements is what makes me like this album so much. It sounds more improvised to me.

no i didn't express myself right.
What i meant was NOT arrangements at all.
I meant i would have liked (in an ideal world ) more weirds breaks / bridges, noisy parts, mmmm it sometimes sounds a bit "dry" (if that makes sense to anybody). In a way it sounds abit VU-like, the sound is pretty rough , i dunno.
I like it a lot, but i'm still waiting in vain for a Washing Machine part.2.
You know the inner sophistication of that record blew me way and still floors me everytime.... This new LP is really the opposite in terms of the overall impression it leaves behind when it's over. Very short songs, i dunno.
Still VERY happy with it, listening to it right now actually, which says it all.
and still very impressed they can pull THIS out at this point in their career, knowing that they are my parents' age... And my parents are not sonic at all.

Compare a twisted fucker like "Skip tracer" to "No way".
ha ha.
The riff of Skip tracer was so weird and amazing. And No way sounds so generic.

I would say it's a 7 after a few listens.

Went with an 8. I was initially thinking 7 but then when I rated the songs individually and averaged it all out, it came out to around 7.5. I figure it's safe to say that the sound quality of a cd will make it even better so I rounded up. Maybe I'm putting way too much effort into this.

(((((8)))))

NO!

I can't wait till June 8th then!

Marry me.

I can see some of what you are saying, although when I listen to it, I feel like SY approached this in a way they haven't approached anything in a long time, like a fresh look at what they themselves were doing. I'm not saying that this in itself makes it better, although I love it.

Now, after listening to it in a good quality, it's 8.5 for me (thought I pushed 7 first), and maybe it will grow some more. Now it's really juicy and everything, a very good SY record, I hope not the last one. Definitely I will buy it!

i gave it 3. why? after listening to this album again and again, i think all in all its shit. but i like some songs somehow, and some songs make me say: "good work, business man, teenagers will buy that", but as a whole, it doesnt touch me. too predictable maybe? i dont know. best i can say: it sounds good when its played live! so, thats a solid 3.

i thought so too. i wonder how it could change so much for me. anyway, listen to it in better quality

I love the new album.

I was going for a 5 this afternoon on first listen. I'm not getting that feeling I get with a new SY album. For the uninitiated this album is probably a masterpiece but I'm elderly and I've been there so many times now.

My 5 has been bumped up to a 7. I'm realizing now that what's killing most of it for me is the production! BRING BACK RICHARD HELL! There are sections that never landed the first spin and now they're starting to pop out of the mix.

Still it's not unbelievable. Calming The Snake is the weakest track.

a 9 because of "poison arrow" & "...bobby pyn" - amazing.

Pay attention to some moments on 'Calming The Snake' and you'll like it more:
1) Steve's drumming is awesome during the whole album, it seems like he has no learnt parts and just plays as he feels at the moment, but always right. E.g. in this song, that part where there's no drums - first he starts with 'tam tam' and second with 'tam-tam', like he was late to play the same thing again.
2) Guitar slide after Kim's 'oh, oh, oh', on 2:10. I like it much.
3) Ending, from 3:10.

...I always do this. haha.

I give it an 8. Really solid album.

I just realized that my downloaded copy of The Eternal was not The Eternal. I don't know what it is, but it's not this. Weird. But it's kind of cool, because now I can buy it and hear it for the first time :)

If you are wondering how I could make this mistake, keep in mind that I was under the impression after downloading this that it was a mostly instrumental album. It sounded SY-ish, but if it was, it wasn't from The Eternal.