Yeah, those are my thoughts exactly. I like some of the first part sections though, "I see a beaten dog in a pungent alley" and "A mother visits her son, smiles to him through the bars, she's never loved him more" are amazing, and "A city that worships flesh" line makes a terrific transition into the next part of narration.
Personally these don't do much for me, but, on the other hand, I like a good chunk of the ending, which you don't seem to like as well as I do. Particularly the aforementioned closing line, but also "Careless realism costs souls," and, actually, the "decent manboy" section.
Good to know that my post was read, though I certainly didn't mean to complain or pick at people about it; the thing is ridiculously long.
Curiously enough, as of now my favourite track is probably Elan.
I like but don't love Élan at the moment. It's good but I'd put it in the bottom 1/3 of the album. This is coming to it having heard it for the first time when I first heard the album (I didn't listen to anything from this album before release day), though, so take what you will from that.
I read it. I actually still think this album has potential to be my favorite, but right now its still behind Once. Time will tell where it finally lands cause the newness is definitely weighing heavily on my favoritism towards it, but I think I can say it is definitely better then Imaginareum at this point. I just think it is more consistent overall. I find EVERY song on EFMB to be at least good and some to be very good.
I just can't put it ahead of
Imaginaerum, personally, because I love every song on that record and really find it to be a burst of creativity in all sorts of different directions—no song on there is like any other song on there.
Extremely preliminary song rankings on the new album from me:
1. Shudder Before the Beautiful
2. Weak Fantasy
3. The Greatest Show On Earth (very high propensity to move up, just isn't quite one unit in my head yet)
4. Alpenglow
5. Edema Ruh
6. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
7. My Walden
8. The Eyes of Sharbat Gula
9. Élan
10. Our Decades in the Sun
11. Yours Is an Empty Hope
Random other note: I love the way Floor whispers "Us, sleeping" at the end of the first vocal section of The Greatest Show On Earth. It may be a testament to how much I know and love Tuomas' songwriting that I knew he was going to have her do that on my first listen before it even happened and that I absolutely love it regardless.