Definitely took some work. On first listen I was a bit disappointed if truth be told. I thought the last few albums from Carnival onwards had been real returns to form. Having heard a few of the songs live I was anticipating another great album and wasn't sure at on first plays. I put it on rotation in the car however and some of the songs started to get under my skin. That being said I think the real Eureka moment came when I heard the songs live. They took on a whole new level and being fortunate enough to attend a lot of the shows across the tour I was able to see how they developed and mutated the more they were played. Lyrically the album is very rich with some absolute works of poetry. The layering of the songs is genius in parts and the production is a good as any the band have produced. There are still a couple of tracks that I can take or leave in truth so it's not quite up there with my favourites, although I rarely skip any, but there are also some absolute classics on there. Summer Moors in particular is a beautiful song but also Qasr El Nil Bridge, Knieval, Stormclouds, Pull The Sun etc. etc. A slow burner in the true meaning of the phrase but now firmly ensconsed in the list of top NMA (and therefore all time) albums.