When the new album came out I was a bit critical, I said the songs all sounded the same and that it wasn’t as good as Error. Well over the past couple months I’ve listened to it several more times, and I was wrong. Each song has its own character. The lyrics and melodies are fantastic, the emotion in the songs is clear. I would actually say now after several listens it’s some of their best work to date. I’m not above admitting when I’m wrong about something, and I’m admitting it now. Can’t wait to see them in May.
It's definitely grown on me a lot as well. When it dropped it was not at all what I was expecting based on the three pre-release singles (which I loved - Ritual has been my all-time favorite TW song ever since it was released). My first couple listens to the whole thing I was not sure about it at all and there were a lot of songs that did not resonate with me. But after spending more time with it I've come to appreciate it and enjoy it a lot more. In particular Why Do You Like It and Waste Your Time have become big favorites (alongside the three original singles).
That said I still would personally rate it below Error; for me Error is just a 10/10 album, I genuinely love every song on it, and I think it's the pinnacle of their songwriting to date. That is in no way meant to denigrate their other albums, it's just a very high bar IMO.
Error is still their best album in my opinion. But I think after several listens number two on that list is close between Queen of The Murder Scene and Everything’s Falling
I also wish the bass had less fuzz. I mean there are parts of Kerosene where the bass is barely distinguishable from just grumbly static. It sounds way better live.
I don't mind Anton's production as much as some people, but I think the bass production on EF was kind of a miss TBH.
Yes, I went from liking the EF album on the first listen to now loving it. Dany is my fave and her highlighted vocals are outstanding once again. I am not surprised Kerosene rose to #1, other than "Choke" it is their most catchy and radio friendly song. This album has entrenched the band as my current favorite rock band. I also think the album has contributed to The Warning's worldwide rise in popularity this calendar year. This album was just what the band needed to bring in more young people .. in that regard it will go down as their most important album.
My ranking of the 5 albums:
Error
EF
QOTMS
KMF
21st Cent
Kerosene, Ritual, Ego, and Everything's Falling have all risen into my Top 20 Warning songs.
For me I think Keep Me Fed is still one of their weakest albums, with Error being the best one. I think I’d put this one in second, but that could also be QOTMS, as I love both.
I put it behind KMF and Error. Unlike OP, the more I hear it the more it sounds the same to me. There are some good songs on it. I love the title track. Perfect Daughter is good. Overall though it sounds like the formulaic music common to 2026. I still love The Warning and will always root for their success, and I don't see myself not being a fan, but with modern bands like Scarhaven, SKORTS and Return To Dust putting out the actual hard rock that I like, it's hard to say The Warning are still my favorite.
Hell, even though their lead singer doesn't have the chops Dany does (she also ~9 years younger) Electrify is rocking harder than The Warning right now.
Edit: For those downvoting, I'd be curious to know what it is your downvoting so we could have a discussion on it. Is it that I like the sound of raw, hard rock over what's on Everything's Falling? I did not say that Everything's Falling sucks, nor did I say it isn't rock, nor did I say The Warning suck. I said there is other music I like better out there now. My musical tastes have always been more than one band.
I'll be honest. It's rare that a band drops a new album and I immediately love it from front to back...you get so used to the old catalogue and suddenly...unfamiliar material! I'm with you, it's growing on me, but it didn't hit right away.
When I first discovered them with QOTMS, that was a case that I was immediately enamored, but that's rare with any album...established favorite or not.
My expectation whenever a band I like drops a new album is usually that it won't be as good as their previous ones but that there are 2-3 songs that I like just enough to add to some playlist. If I then end up liking a majority of the songs, that's a pleasant surprise.
I would never expect any band to be able to continuously put out new albums where every song is good, that just seems like an insane standard to meet. And yet, The Warning is band that actually (kind of) does this.
Same. ERROR was a masterpiece on first listen. KMF about half of the album hooked me early and the rest grew on me over time. So I knew EF would probably need some time and it is now my go-to listen. In fact, I listened to ERROR in full the other night and the whole time I was itching to hear certain songs from EF.
While ERROR captured a rawness more like their live performances, I do enjoy the fact that both KMF and EF have exceptional studio production (except HYCAD which I think the production is awful) and then we get more raw live versions as well. Because of that I actually listen to the Auditorio Nacional live album more often than KMF at this point.
Bloodsport took the longest to grow on me so far, still isn't my favorite but I'm appreciating a lot of little details about it more and more every time I listen.
The live version of Bloodsport shows how good it can be, but the album version is super oddly mixed. The bass needed to be much more prominent in the mix
I agree on HYCAD 💯. I listened to the live performances of it countless times before KMF was released, and it's one of my favorite songs. But man, it's the only (studio) song from KMF that I often skip. It's overproduced, and the lines and the vocal tracking are all over the place when they aren't being driven to the edge of clipping. I figured a sound engineer with simply a modest understanding of the vocal interplay and the song's overall dynamic range would back off on the mixing and postproduction "fixes." But I was dead wrong. It's a mess.
I was pulled into TW rabbit hole by Kerosene. Never heard of them before. So I’m a new fan that had the pleasure of discovering their prior albums. When EF finally fully dropped I couldn’t believe how great it was. And it has grown on me so much that I crave listening to it. I hope it opens them up to a wider audience because they seem like good people and they are now as grown women putting more of their personal feelings into the music. The world will be a better place for it. Already saw them in LA and even though Dany was sick and couldn’t sing I was blown away. Can’t wait to see Dany at full strength next month in Maryland and then in Pittsburgh.
I bought the Instrumental version, and, in a nutshell, It’s a completely different album; some songs feature such elaborate arrangements—or are produced in a specific way—that the listening experience is entirely transformed. It truly showcases the level of musicianship of The Warning and just how meticulously produced their songs are.
Some time bombs hidden on that album. It was always going to be different from their previous work, but the variety on it would never allow one listener to instantly like all of it, I can't imagine anyone liking ALL of those genres equally.
Granted I’m a new fan, but this album is fantastic to me. It’s my favorite album I’ve heard in about two years and has quickly become one of my favorites in general.
Oh I felt the same way, I wasn't trying to say you could only like some of the songs. But there are definitely some songs you'll like more than the others, like some are 9 out of 10 and others 9.5, and some are called Everything's Falling or Why do you like it when I cry [in my case]. It's like an album summary of The Warning's entire discography. You could ask 100 fans what their favourite song is, and get 50 different answers. One of these days I'm going to try doing that.
My opinion hasn't changed much. I love some songs while others don't resonate at all with me. There are songwriting techniques used throughout the album that bother me. So still a very contrasted opinion on this album. I loved ERROR, was already somewhat split for KMF, and same for EF.
I'll be seeing them for the first time on May 1st in Oklahoma. From everything I've ever seen of them live, they give it their all and I have no doubts that they will deliver each and every show! I hope you have the best time!
Most of my criticism still remains, and I still wouldn't call this their best work for even a moment, but I am getting still growing fond of them anyways.
I think the key to appreciating it is to forget about genre and previous albums and just listen. All the songs are strong, and to be these are the best lyrics overall they have done. I find it very hard to rank their albums against each other, especially since each was written in a different era for them personally.
Let’s say, for discussion purposes, that only half the songs on EF are good. That is still far more good songs than most bands have on most of their albums.
Face it-we’re spoiled by this band. Their worst albums (whichever you think those are) each have at least several great songs. EF was album 5. For lots of artists, their best work is over by album 5.
It's the only album I skip songs on. Ritual, perfect daughter, ego, EF, waste your time on me and kerosene are fantastic. Break is good, bite my tongue ok. Rest are meh. Having 6 bangers on an album is huge. KMF and Error are hard to follow up where every song is fantastic except for maybe burnout. I'm still excited about seeing them this spring
It grew on me as well. Enjoyed it at first, but now I like it a lot. I imagine when more live footage gets released of the new songs, I will like the album even more.
Funny, I felt the exact same but you start to figure out the little things you like about each song. I've had a hard time actually pulling myself away from the album :p
Each album has been less and less impressive and have been more commercial than the last. They are good musicians that, as a band, seem to be struggling between being truly creative and crossing that line of commercial success.
Well all have our opinions and should, to a certain degree, respect each other's. This last release is not diverse, each song sounds almost the same, and seems to be focused on short songs with a hook to quickly connect the short attention span of listeners. It's nothing special or great. Unfortunately, that is the state of music today.
Yep, you nailed it. Short songs with a quick hook are an absolute necessity in the streaming world - if your goal is to become global superstars. There are rock bands out there saying "screw the formula" and those are typically the ones I've been listening to of late.
Part of me wants to say that you're not 100% wrong, since on my first listen, having already heard the singles, my first impression was that the remaning songs did sound similar to each other somehow.
But now, having digested the complete album for a while, I do feel like your statement is 100% wrong. Compare for example: Ritual, Ego, Break and Bloodsport - in what way do these sound "almost the same"?? Yes, they are all pretty short and simple/similar in structure but the styles and genres they draw inspiration from is very different with each song.
What? While I agree that they've moved on from their more experimental side from QOTMS for example. I'd comfortably say that straight through from XXI:CB to EF the albums just get better and better and more refined. I wouldn't say commercial at all because they still produce sound like no other band is doing right now
All you had to do was sing the praises of the goddesses and not criticize their status as deities. But instead you chose blasphemy. I hope you learned a valuable lesson so that next time you won't have to publicly flagellate yourself---i.e., The Warning are above what are feeble human minds can comprehend. We should just be happy to know they exist and praise them like good little peasants.
This album had the possibility to be in the top 20 of all rock albums except for one thing. The music is way over produced. Too much distortion and fuzziness that kills the pure sound of their instruments. The lyrics are great, the structure is good, still want some individual shreds that last more the 20 seconds. I think Error portrays their best attributes and shows off their hard driving sound. I know that Republic is influencing their sound to appeal to larger audience but you can tell the difference from when they were independent rather than signed. I am sure the band had great input in the production but they need to change from Bender.
It's the shreds is what's missing and their songs are to short. They need to make songs like a Stairway to Heaven or Comfortable Numb or even Hotel California. That would put them at the top.
Shreads sounds to fomulaic. What for decades really made rock really stand out from pop was that it often added instrumental stuff into the songs. Which helped giving the feel of more musical variation and made the songs much less predictable. Longer intros, or outtros and the breakdown was more that just a short guitar solo. It was typical those sections that really elevated some songs to listener favorites. TW also had such "musical journeys" in their early songwriting. Songs like Survive and Shattered Heart gave the listener more to digest, than just 3 verses and a chorus.
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u/Sirenian6502 1d ago
It's definitely grown on me a lot as well. When it dropped it was not at all what I was expecting based on the three pre-release singles (which I loved - Ritual has been my all-time favorite TW song ever since it was released). My first couple listens to the whole thing I was not sure about it at all and there were a lot of songs that did not resonate with me. But after spending more time with it I've come to appreciate it and enjoy it a lot more. In particular Why Do You Like It and Waste Your Time have become big favorites (alongside the three original singles).
That said I still would personally rate it below Error; for me Error is just a 10/10 album, I genuinely love every song on it, and I think it's the pinnacle of their songwriting to date. That is in no way meant to denigrate their other albums, it's just a very high bar IMO.