rumbled about recording back in 2016, when he was in the thick of promoting -- a record designed to modernize the adolescent angst at the heart of 's earliest music. gamely pursued this concept with , a producer weaned on '90s , but once hit the stores, he seemed more interested in creating its counterpart, a record that abandons the light for dark, where the vocalist sings profanities on record for the first time. It was a high concept for a band so devoted to high concepts it couldn't resist recording two other conceptual records -- , a 2017 LP which was another salute to the West Coast, and a surprise covers album called -- before unleashing in March 2019. At first glance, this color-coded LP appears to live up to 's promise: the singer swears like a sailor throughout an album that's helmed by , the moody mastermind behind . Superficially, these are elements that could be part of an album that showcases a darker , but the vibe of is sunny and playful. Filled with bossa nova rhythms, glam stomps, and power pop, moves swiftly and stylishly, deliberately generating memes as rapidly as it spins out hooks. There's no other way to classify "Zombie Bastards," a song designed to play equally well as bumper music and fan-made videos, a song where knows that the title alone carries the tune's water, so he runs out the lyrics to the chorus with "keep on blah blah blah." This isn't a sign of laziness so much as economy. He'll deploy his wit when he needs to -- witness the devious dig at the start of "Byzantine," co-written with -- but he also realizes that pop is the alchemy between catch phrases and catchy melodies, where the sum is greater than the parts. 's studio sharps provides an invaluable assist in this regard, pumping up the mean pop and skewed art aspects of in equal measure. Unlike or , doesn't appear to have designs on modern rock radio; there may be sops to the audience, but there's no attempt to chase a trend. All this means is that feels like the most fully realized latter-day album: it may flagrantly draw from old and new elements of pop culture, yet it belongs to its own feverish world. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine