Okay, full non-spoiler take:
I'm tempering my excitement to think as realistically as possible because right now, after several listens, my endorphins are screaming "best album ever!"
It's not. But it is their 4th best album - and I mean that in the best way possible. Now I have 4 albums that I will juggle in my mind as the best that Kasabian can be. This thing takes you on a RIDE.
ALCHEMIST is beautiful and the switch in to SCRIPTVRE turns the whole thing into kinda one massive opening track.
The only thing I'm gonna say about ROCKET FUEL is the pit for this one is gonna be scary.
STRICTLY OLD SKOOL has such great lyrics and the vibe is almost indescribable.
It might just be me or my speaker, but ALYGATYR does sound a little cleaner
æ space is a necessary transition piece that gives THE WALL so much more weight as the beginning of the "space" themed suite.
What I said for OLD SKOOL goes double for T.U.E. (the ultraview effect). It's so good, it gets away with pretty much aping a very famous old song from a very famous old band in the last section.
STARGAZR might be my favorite thing they've done since I.D. - but is also nothing like I.D.
Again, the songs around it give CHEMICALS even more weight than it already had.
æ sea brings us back to earth with a motif from a previous song on the album and tees up the brilliantly understated ending that is LETTING GO.
(This part gets a little more into SPOILER territory - though only lightly. If you want to, you can stop reading now to stay fresh as possible.)
Man there was way more melancholy and wistfulness than I thought there would be in an album titled THE ALCHEMIST'S EUPHORIA. It's pretty clear that Tom leaving hurt Serge a lot more than he wants to admit publicly. The lyrics seem to hint at a lot more of the true story behind how Tom's issues with mental health and alcoholism affected the band as a whole and Serge himself. Unless I'm just reading way too much into it, there was a split coming sooner or later and it just unfortunately happened in a very ugly way. You can hear the regret for how the past several years played out and the yearning for the good old days when they were still brothers from other mothers.
Anyone who thinks this is SLP 2 needs to get their ears checked. This baby is Kasabian through and through. The only thing holding it back is it's lacking for just one more big, crowd shaker of a song to really drive home the "Euphoria" of the title. As it stands though, it's an understated gem of an album that leaves me excited for the future while more than content until the next album cycle begins.
Creatively speaking, this feels like what should have happened after Velociraptor - just minus Tom. That does sting a little to think about in that context, and time will tell with the next album whether Serge can continue leading the band into the infinite possibilities they've now created, or if Tom's leaving has maybe dimmed the fire (I'm sorry for that pun. I really am).
