It's a strange album to be the restart of a career. Maybe because it was just made as a solo album by the then Dream Theater drummer.
To begin with, it's a solo album by a drummer, something we don't see a lot of out there. So you could imagine that the songs were constructed to give all the prominence to the drums, right? Wrong. The drums complement the other instruments (as is indeed the role of the drums).
Perhaps because it was composed by a drummer, the album is too rhythmic, syncopated, groovy. It lacks more striking riffs. If we add this to the fact that the vocal melodies are often similar, this makes the album a little tiring.
Majura's vocals are an interesting point: on the one hand, the way she sings seems to contribute to the feeling of having heard this before on this album. On the other hand, there is a personality there, it doesn't seem generic.
There are good moments throughout the album, but it's not a fluid listen. But I like the way Mangini plays on the entire album.
The positive point of the endeavor is the fact that it is a very brave album for an artist linked to prog metal/prog whatever. It's not the type of music we would expect from someone linked to this universe. Let's agree that, with the right people, it's not difficult to record a generic prog album and please the public (e.g. Temic). Mike did the unexpected. And that could be bad in the current context.