Stars: 1.5/5
The Neighbourhood has not been center-stage recently. With well-known hits like “Sweater Weather” and “Afraid” from 2013, the band has been laying low in recent years.
The band’s new self-titled album, “The Neighbourhood,” offers a different sound that sounds nothing like its prior hits. It is a new twist on the alternative genre. Featuring more electronic sounds and slower beats, the album is less alternative and more indie pop.
If you were a fan of the band’s older music, prepare to be surprised, and maybe a little disappointed by its new direction. The album itself is all over the place musically.
The band’s older albums featured alternative hits with consistent beats, thoughtful and dark lyrics and consistent sounds that established the band as a pioneer force in the genre of “new alternative.”
The new album features a slow beat with less alternative and more bubble gum and indie pop. It seems as if the band has lost its sound that made it famous.
The album’s first song, “Flowers,” sounds like something straight from a bad ‘90s movie about the love and peace of the ‘60s.
The pace changes when you reach the fourth song, “Void,” which sounds like a slowed down version of a bad Nick Jonas song.
As you make your way through the album, all the songs sound similar. It is hard to distinguish one from the other, causing the songs to all blur together. Frankly, it is boring.
I was disappointed in the new album. Normally, when new albums come out from bands I have liked in the past, I end up having new songs to add to my library, but I did not enjoy any of it enough to want to listen to it again.
One thing that remains consistent is the self-pitying lyrics from the hit songs in 2013. The songs sound as if the audience is meant to feel bad for the artist for something we did not do.
The album sounds like a brand new band still trying to find its sound, and not like well-established artists who already have hits from other albums.
I would have rated the album higher because I was a huge fan of The Neighbourhood, but it seems it has lost the “cool” factor that made me like it. It is not relatable anymore. The music is bland, the lyrics are uninspiring and the album is an overall disappointment.
