10. Extremely creative, ambitious, wild, prophetic, detailed, diverse. I consider this album important from a musical history perspective. The surround mix is fantastic, immersive, discreet, and dynamic. It's difficult to describe the music, but Refused started as a hardcore band (from Sweden) and while this album does include a lot of hardcore, screaming, etc - it also has a LOT of jazz, electronic, metal, found-sound, and folk elements. While the screaming is certainly not for everyone, it's done very well and there are also many, many sections with singing, and talking. Very diverse. For me, it sits perfectly in the mix. I liked the changes on two songs, and loved the changes from stereo to surround throughout. My only small complaint is the drums. I wish they were more dry in general but that's personal preference.
The mix is nearly as active as Flaming Lips' Yoshimi, a bit less swirling around - but vocals and guitars are often popping up only in the rears for sections. There is a LOT going on. Very fun for being very serious lyrically. As mentioned, very cheap to find used and absolutely worth taking a chance on. The creativity, ambition, and hope on this album is really striking to me now. This was the end of one era before everything changed.
