Awesome review Jack, and one that has me even more hyped for the album. Just one question: why a 7.5 for the lyrics (Not that that's a bad score or anything by any means)? Could you elaborate on that a bit? It just sticks out a bit since all of the other scores on the sidebar are between 9 and 10. (I'm not questioning your review or anything like that, just genuinely interested).

Edit: since I posted this the score's been bumped up to an 8.5, so I'm guessing the original 7.5 was a typo. There goes my question! Sick review again, been waiting for this for a long time. Next Tuesday still feels ages away.

Originally Posted by Jack Appleby

Actually meant for it to be an 8.5! But to answer your question, some of the songs are a tad more simple - not a bad thing by any means, but not deserving of a 9 or 10. If there was a melodies category, I'd give it a 14 - they're pretty much perfect across the entire record.

Ah, ok, cool. They've always been a chorus heavy band so I think I understand. Thanks for the reply.

Originally Posted by guitaristbrb

I've never listened to them but always wanted to. What album should I listen to to get me set up for this release?

Cities or Never Take Friendship Personal. Easily the best 2 albums they've put out though I'm a fan of New Surrender as well.

Originally Posted by Jack Appleby

For some, Cities has too much of a nostalgia factor to let any new Anberlin top it. I truly think this is better though.

I think this is really true. Cities is awesome but we (Ill include myself here) have to let Vital be it's own album. I started loving NS once I stopped expecting it to be Cities, Part 2.

Originally Posted by hunchristian

The album is leaked finally, so awesome

I found it to and only listened to a about 45 seconds total before I decided to hold off. I'd much rather wait to hear the whole album, front to back, all at once... I don't really like downloading singles for that reason alone (though I'll admit I bought SS and SA, only listened to each maybe 10 times). There's just something about hearing a whole album in awesome quality that I love. It's really, really tempting though to listen to the leak.

Originally Posted by MGAdams

So you're saying the whole album hasn't leaked? Just a few songs? I'm confuzzled.

The one I found was missing the closing track.