Just finished my first listen. My initial reaction? I'm not sure I get it.
When I listen to a DT album, I expect to go a journey. I was expecting this album to be the definitive DT experience, what with it being self-titled, the band themselves hyping it up so much and all the positive comments I've been observing here.
I don't really feel like this album took me on a journey. It just felt like... a bunch of songs.
Even the "epic" Illumination Theory was disappointing to me. It felt disjointed and underwhelming.
Weirdly, the "Easter Egg" at the end of the album was one of the bits I enjoyed the most. It's almost like I felt that that's more of what the album needed as a whole... more "chill" moments to balance out the intensity.
I don't know... it just seems to me that DT may be trying too hard nowadays. Like ever since MP left, they've had something to prove. This album felt too much like a continuation of what they were trying to do on ADToE.
When I first discovered this band, I immediately fell in love with their sound and every thing they wrote and produced just intrigued and drew me in. On this album and ADToE, it just felt like they were trying to impress me by being overly technical, complex and powerful, to convince me that they've still "got it".
Obviously, I don't know what their true intentions or motivations are when it comes to creating music. But the one thing that I've always loved about this band is their musical integrity, the pure and unrelenting desire to make the music that they want to make, paying no need to popularity or external pressure. I very much hope that deep down, this is still the case - as opposed to making music for the sake of satisfying and maintaining their fan base.
I voted "meh" because that pretty much sums up how I feel after my first listen. There were definitely moments that made me smile and I'm sure like any other album, it will time to take some time to fully digest and I'll probably appreciate it more then.
I was just curious to see if anyone else feels this way.