So I finished my first full listen to the new album, and I have to say I'm a
little disappointed. Not a lot, and not overall. Overall, it's still a great album, and I'm hoping it will keep growing.
I've always loved their variety, how they can deftly go from face-smashing heaviness to beautiful melodies and harmonies, and I kept waiting for another really good face smasher, but it never came. Where's the next "Down" or "Wicked Garden"? I don't want clones of those songs, no, but after completely exploring their melodic side, I was ready to get heavy again, and it didn't happen. The opening track is the hardest-hitting it gets.
..all the while showing a sense of melodic maturity rare in mainstream rock.
This. It's their sense of melody and harmony, which is accentuated when they hit you with dissonace and cacaphony, that I love. But there must be balance. I need that dark side of STP, too. "Where the River Goes", "Lounge Fly", etc. I miss that.