I was jazzed about this for the entire two days between me finding out about it and it being released, but alas it's pretty weak. This was probably always going to be an issue for Smith, whose breakthrough Ears was most notable for sounding completely unique. There's still some good stuff on here, but for the most part she doubles down on a particular subset of the Ears sound and makes an entire album out of rehashing those more pop-leaning efforts. Additionally, her slowly-increasing renown has brought with it some puzzling visual decisions, like The Kid's atrociously bad cover and a new set of generically psychedelic press photos that suggest a deliberate pivot to courting the acid-and-nitrous festival crowd. Can't knock the hustle, but that's never been good news for artistic integrity.

Highlight: To Follow & Lead