Premise: I am half asleep (this almost goes without fail when I write here, for the record). Here's my first thoughts on MOR's new one.

"richard"
Sounds familiar. Somewhat more mature version of Queens/DS. Oh yeah, I've barely listened to MOR before so I've got very little to directly compare this with. Anyway, it's driving, got that stoner rock under-roll but it's not stoner rock... desert rock.

"jim"
Nice start. Better bassy build up later. Some good crap going on towards the middle-end. This song sounds drunk.

"worm"
Enh to the very start. Then I hear super low bass. Sounds like the start of an ICP song. Getting bored, moving on.

"always"
Already posted this, I think. This doesn't full-on roll but it's got that circular beat, and the lowness combined with the beat = sexy. Liked.

"johnny's dream"
Johnny as in Dirty Dancing? ... Slow.

"vp"
The Strokes. harrr. Watch this song show up in a movie during a scene of tension.

"dreamtime"
Nah, he's not a member of the Queens personnel at all.

"rosie"
Blues. Ironically a happy song.

"the whore"
My left ear has been raped by over-produced soft voiced words. Getting real jammy towards the middle. Clutch with a decent vocalist. Nice.

"testify"
A little too noisy for a first impression write up when half asleep, too much to take in.

"alfalfa"
Get to the point. ... There isn't one? Nope, just 12 minutes of crack smoke.

Why did this take over a year to be released? Nothing's wrong with it. It's not "out there". All the songs seem decent on first run. Sounds a little too EV Queens-ish at times, but that's to be expected, and it's not overwhelming unless you don't like the genre of desert rock to begin with. I'll need time with this to "hear" the lyrics and such, but... it sounds fine.

First impression: good but not fantastic. You'll like this if you like your heavy 5-15% proof. or stripper music. or Chris' vocals.