Polaris

This album stands as an anomaly in the career of NMA. It's by far their worst album. There's such an amature feel to this album. With weak and generic vocals, they sound good for a lounge band at best. Actually, this reminded me of what a Gin Blossoms tribute band might sound like. Good for a lounge/Gin Blossoms tribute band, not good for my Ipod. Besides the shoddy vocals, the main problem with this album is that it sounds more bluesy than swampy like the rest of their albums do. It's a subtle, but important distinction - especially with NMA. They just do swamp better and it sounds more natural. The stats on this album are awful. There's only one 3 star song on this album in Never In All My Days and the rest are all throwaways. Never In All My Days is the one song that sounds up to snuff like the rest of their albums. The vocals are actually good. It sounds like a completely different singer on this track. It's so good by comparison that it makes the rest of the album seem like they just weren't even trying. Especially on the song Otay. It is a true low point in their career. If anything, it was certainly not otay.