This is depressing. 　　 　　Union was my favourite album of 2009 by far, and is pretty high up in my list of favourite albums of all time. I don\'t give a shit about the RYM rating, that album is amazing. But already, before this newbie even came out I was all set to be dissapointed. After creating an album which moved me in such a magnificent way, I knew it was going to be a hard act to follow and the band probably wouldn\'t make an album that great again... at least not straight away. The best I was hoping for was an album like Exits, not the world\'s best album but some fucking amazing Boxer Rebellion classics on there. 　　 　　The new Boxer Rebellion classic tracks. So where are they? There are none. Like, I wasn\'t expecting this to be totally amazing but I wasn\'t expecting it to be this... mediocre. I don\'t wanna be the guy to say this but by Boxer Rebellion standards at least, this is a really poor effort. OK, the first track \"No Harm\" is simply amazing but it all falls flat after that. \"Step Out Of The Car\" is the sound of them attemping to make another big stomping rocker like \"Watermelon\", \"Evacuate\" or \"Forces\" and failing miserably. \"Caught By The Light\" is good, but way too familiar. It feels like The Boxers have made the exact same song before on a previous album. After that, there\'s nothing memorable about this record. Nothing grabs your attention like the last one, none of the songs move and it\'s all very much in-one-ear-out-another. Most of the songs are at least, unfortunately tracks like \"Locked In The Basement\" and \"Organ Song\" are just plain bad. 　　 　　The production is the main issue, this is the first album not self-produced by the band so you lose a lot of that traditional Boxer Rebellion sound. Ethan Johns is the man at the helm this time. He\'s sucked all the shine and energy out of every single song to make it sound more dull than it already does. Bit odd, Johns did a pretty good job with Gerling\'s 4 but it seems like he\'s not the man for The Boxers. There\'s just a total lack of energy on this thing, it\'s a quite reverb soaked mess. It\'s frustrating. 　　 　　This is uninspired and bland. I hoped I would never have to say that about a TBR record. Guys... what have you done? 　　 　　The alternative version of Semi-Automatic on the deluxe edition though... that is really something. Blows the original version out of the fucking water and that was pretty good in the first place. Just thought I should mention it. 　　 　　Recommended - No Harm.