the dear hunter: i like this, dunno if i love this though. i'm not really taken in by the theatrics, and it feels like there's a fair bit of wasted space on this album. there's no stretch of songs all in a row that i really like either; i like the old haunt, i like waves, i like the bitter suite iv and v, i like king of swords, i like if all goes well, i like wait. some of a night on the town is pretty good, the squeaky wheel is alright, ouroboros starts strong but ends anticlimactically. it's like every time i start to really get into it, something happens to undercut my enjoyment, and it definitely should've been shorter than it is
hammock: i got exactly what i expected out of this album and i consider that a very good thing
unexpect: man, i wish i liked this more than i do. what it ends up feeling like to me is a collection of ideas with nothing tying them together. and some of the ideas are cool but far more of them are just "ehh, that's pretty weird i guess" or "not really feeling it" so i can't enjoy it much on that level either. i want more from this than it's giving me, i suppose. aside from the two non-metal tracks it's hard to tell anything apart too. and i don't like the talky bits on feasting fools or psychic jugglers at all.