DEATH BY STEREO

Death By Boredom. After turning out their best album in "Mantis", UM decides to go with a simpler approach overall. "Search 4" is the only song worthy of being on "Mantis". The new thing is funk. It seems like they are overly enamored with it Songs like "Booth Love", "Deeper", and "Wellwishers" all fall victim of a bad attempt to get funky. A prog band still desperately trying to cling to their jam band roots. Move on, guys. "Conduit" had potential but it too fails due to another jam attempt.

I am very disappointed. I thought for sure UM was indeed progressing rather they are regressing and it isn't pretty. Apparently they couldn't handle being focused enough to crank out another prog epic like "Mantis" but at least we have that. 1.5 stars which I round up for no good reason.