Love and Paranoia

I'm the self-professed biggest fan of these guys in the US, and always look forward to new releases. They are in the highest rotation on my iPod, and when I found out they were working on a new album, needless to say, I sat on pins & needles waiting for it to come out. My impression, after multiple listens (I bought the entire album, so I'm not going from samples here), is that it's an attempt to reach a broader audience. In doing so, I feel they have moved away somewhat from the band that I've grown to love. I suppose Mish-Mash, their last effort was a move in this direction. However, the songs "The Drop" and "Sonnet of a Media Mogul" were so outstanding that I couldn't help but rate that album top of my list. However, as a fan of those and other songs such as "Famous", "Superstraight", "Fat Cop", "I Will Lick Your Arsehole", "Happiness", "Just Another Beautiful Story", etc... I'm missing something on Love and Paranoia. This is a very polished and pop-punk album, and Regurgitator has always been capable here. And while I like that sound well enough, the songs mentioned above always stood out and above as great and/or funny compositions with a great musical quality. This album seems more mainstream, so hence my rating. I guess I've been a bit indirect in my criticism here, but this album doesn't do the same for me that all of their previous releases as far back as Unit: Rebooted have done- have several tracks that jump out of the CD at me and just carry me away from whatever I'm doing into their world, with delicious licks and almost visual prose at times. Criticism aside- if you like pop punk, buy this and review it yourself. If you're not familiar with these guys, I really do recommend finding the songs I mentioned above, and buy as many CD's as you can get. Their sound has gradually changed over time, so it's hard to pick any one representative work.