Surprised by such a low rating for this
This was not a proper album so set your expectations correctly.
It's a soundtrack to the chaos of the pandemic and never to be taken like his other works.
It's hugely avant-garde and ambient which to things I happen to enjoy alot from Devin.

Written by HyperDrifter on 04.12.2021 at 18:44

This was not a proper album so set your expectations correctly.

Yeah, I kinda missed this memo and was a bit baffled trying to listen to this. I thought that Snuggles was the ambient one and Puzzle was the 'normal' album. I'm a huge fan of Devin and while Empath also did take quite a few listens to properly grow on me (Singularity definitely is one of best songs in his catalog), that at least had some proper structure and 'normal' songs to hang on to. I'm not saying this is 'bad' but definitely a bit too 'way out there' and probably too ambient-ish for my taste for most of the part. Sure there are also many cool bits here and there (Monument of Glitch is actually very nice) but overall lot's of 'filler'. Will give it a few more listens but yeah... I hope Devin has at least one 'proper album' (even if it is more 'progressive-pop-happy-metal' that has been present on Epicloud/Sky Blue- that's fine with me) left in him before he spirals in to other musical avenues away from metal (reading some bits of his interviews and his twitter, it seems that it could be a possibility).

Like Snuggles, this is not very good. Of course, Devin's devoted fans are gushing over it (likely because they don't listen to other ambient music and therefore don't realize how average this is), but realistically, this just isn't that special.

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 05.12.2021 at 18:49

Like Snuggles, this is not very good. Of course, Devin's devoted fans are gushing over it (likely because they don't listen to other ambient music and therefore don't realize how average this is), but realistically, this just isn't that special.

Saves me the trouble of actually listening to it at all hahaha

Written by TheBigRossowski on 06.12.2021 at 10:15

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 05.12.2021 at 18:49

Like Snuggles, this is not very good. Of course, Devin's devoted fans are gushing over it (likely because they don't listen to other ambient music and therefore don't realize how average this is), but realistically, this just isn't that special.

Saves me the trouble of actually listening to it at all hahaha

I mean, I'd say go for it... you might totally disagree with me. Plenty of people saying this album is "life changing" and "Dev's best ever" so maybe it's just me. But for me personally, this has nothing that makes it stand out from your average ambient album.

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 06.12.2021 at 15:21

Written by TheBigRossowski on 06.12.2021 at 10:15

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 05.12.2021 at 18:49

Like Snuggles, this is not very good. Of course, Devin's devoted fans are gushing over it (likely because they don't listen to other ambient music and therefore don't realize how average this is), but realistically, this just isn't that special.

Saves me the trouble of actually listening to it at all hahaha

I mean, I'd say go for it... you might totally disagree with me. Plenty of people saying this album is "life changing" and "Dev's best ever" so maybe it's just me. But for me personally, this has nothing that makes it stand out from your average ambient album.

I have a hard time separating the two (almost autistically haha). Same happened with Hail Spirit Noir, I don't understand the idea to use your band name and make something totally outside what you normally offer. Why not give it a new name tied to it, for example "Tales from Devin Townsend: The Blah Blah Blah". I just find it difficult to listen to something that won't sound like what I would have hoped it would, were it not for these reviews.

Written by TheBigRossowski on 06.12.2021 at 19:16

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 06.12.2021 at 15:21

Written by TheBigRossowski on 06.12.2021 at 10:15

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 05.12.2021 at 18:49

Like Snuggles, this is not very good. Of course, Devin's devoted fans are gushing over it (likely because they don't listen to other ambient music and therefore don't realize how average this is), but realistically, this just isn't that special.

Saves me the trouble of actually listening to it at all hahaha

I mean, I'd say go for it... you might totally disagree with me. Plenty of people saying this album is "life changing" and "Dev's best ever" so maybe it's just me. But for me personally, this has nothing that makes it stand out from your average ambient album.

I have a hard time separating the two (almost autistically haha). Same happened with Hail Spirit Noir, I don't understand the idea to use your band name and make something totally outside what you normally offer. Why not give it a new name tied to it, for example "Tales from Devin Townsend: The Blah Blah Blah". I just find it difficult to listen to something that won't sound like what I would have hoped it would, were it not for these reviews.

Yeah, that makes sense. I have a decent amount of tolerance for stylistic changes... but yes, whenever what you're doing doesn't even have the slightest resemblance to your past works, it's a bit weird to be using the same name (likely it's to boost sales, though).

With that said, Dev's stuff has been pretty all over the place, and there has always been a pretty strong ambient nature to a lot of his music. But yeah... I personally don't really count these albums as part of his official discography, and I feel like most of the praise it's getting from his fans is due to the bias from having his name on it.