This album hasn't received the greatest reviews and I can't understand why. I think that most critics (even the ones who beat up on APTBS as of late) will agree that "Worship" is far-better executed than "Onwards to the Wall". Maybe people are upset that on this album there are still no follow-ups to "In the Shadow of your Heart" or the super-accessible "Exploding Head" but as far as an offering in goth or noise-rock genres, I don't see how you could be too disappointed with this album.
The Pitchfork review had a quote of something to the effect that the band doesn't know their way around a pop song but newsflash, this isn't fucking pop music. With indie and twee and electro-pop being as important as they are right now in rock there seems to be an over-enshrining of rock based on pop structures of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Pop song-writing shouldn't be the standard by which EVERY artist's work is judged.
The is album is everything that people expect from the band: driving bass-lines, a constant presence of ambient darkness, and foggy, blurry, vocals at the back of the mix. Noise-rock is anti-pop. It shatters conventional musical organization and has no real chart-toppers to give it that mooring to pop.
Best songs are "Alone", the unusually quiet and controlled "Fear", and "Worship" which reminds me very much of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" and makes me want head-bang just as hard.
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