Heroes

Ambitious and mostly successful. A couple of missteps keep it from true perfection.

The singles are obvious highlights but the deep cuts are excellent too.

The singles are obvious highlights but the deep cuts are excellent too.

This album has been in heavy rotation for me since it came out. It's not quite flawless — there's a stretch in the middle that loses momentum, and one track I usually skip — but the highs are so high that the minor dips barely register. The opening three tracks alone would make this worth owning. What I appreciate most is the willingness to take risks. Not every experiment lands perfectly, but the ones that do are genuinely thrilling. You can hear an artist pushing past their comfort zone and finding something new. That kind of creative courage is rare and should be celebrated even when the results are imperfect.

Returned to this after a few years away and it hit even harder than I remembered. Some albums age poorly but this one has only gotten better with time. The themes feel more relevant now than ever and the sonics still sound fresh.

Pretentious and meandering. Style over substance.

Not sure what happened here. Their previous work was so strong and this feels like a significant step backward. The songwriting is lazy, the production is overwrought, and the whole thing feels phoned in. A couple of decent tracks don't save it.

A thoroughly enjoyable listen from start to finish.

Love the sonic palette on this record. Every sound feels intentional and the mix is pristine. A couple of the songs blur together on casual listens but focused listening reveals the nuances. Very strong work overall.

I appreciate what they were going for even if it doesn't fully land.