Well, it's not an absolutely terrible album, but weighing the prod and cons eventually led me to give this rating. Yeah, the vocals are the stand-out worst thing here, but some of the songs are pretty boring instrumentally too. Obviously the musical direction here largely follows from the creative backbone of the band's debut album (which I still believe is so underrated), but there's not as much vigour or passion it seems for the most part. I'd say the best songs here are opener "On a Wave" and "Proof", both of which just so happen to be vocally bearable-more so than anywhere else on the album. Nonetheless, it's faulty footsteps for a band still in their early days, but it would have been less surprising had this been the debut instead of Always...

Also, do the vocals ever remind anyone of Mike Patton in his earlier FNM days? I mean, like a considerably weaker version of that style, not a direct imitation.