Had a handful of listens on repeat, here's my little review / observations:
The Dark Forest: Quite a mixture of Knights and Survival. Each time I hear the intro it reminds of Hyrule castle in Zelda: Link to the past, one of my favs in the album and a good way to open the album
Nightshift Superstar: I think ever since they did that disco drum beat in Apocalypse Please when they play that live I've always been confident that they can always do disco. Quite a bop
Shimmering Stars: The chords are the same chords you get from your standard ballad but what really carries this song is Matt's deliberate "let it be raw, let it be weird" (oh yes, helpful to read the wiki for little details like this). Vulnerability carries through
Cryogen: Plug in baby v2. The riff isn't as tight as PiB but the outro makes up for pure moshability (don't stand in the middle of the pit unless you're in for a crushing time)
Be w/ you: Organ reminds me of Unnatural Selection, and overall song gives me Invincible feels... actually scrap that, no it reminds me of meme song Big Enough by Kirin J Callinan (Matt could totally wear a cowboy hat and scream in the mountains / sorry I ruined this song for you)
Hexagons: You can sing "oooh 1 2 3 4 5 it's in your eyes" on the intro or feel the need to relisten to Rubric by Phillip Glass.
The Sickness in You & I: "Moving a dog, we're moving a dog, baby". I'm not keen on the RHCPesque verses or when it's all falsetto'y. The weaker song in the album for me
Unravelling: Ah the first single and preview into what the Wow! Signal would be. Absolutely enjoy the chugs in this.
Hush: Can't lie, the music video got me into this. Really good banger and Ellie Goulding does a great job guest singing in this.
Space Debris: Real come down for the album, the song where Matt hopes "fans don't ask me to play that one live". A raw and vulnerable track.
Mostly enjoyed the coherent space theme tying the album together. I wish there were more piano songs, space and piano music go hand in hand, Shimmering Scars isn't enough.
