One of the fun things about going into an album knowing nothing about the artist is slowly getting a sense of what they are about, and being surprised by the turns they make. 44SOUNDS' dedcanon is, at a surface level, an electro-pop album with fairly sparse production and big punchy beats, but listen a little harder and you'll hear an artist with a pretty vast music taste behind it all. This is, I think, what makes the album sound so fresh and prevents it from getting repetitive.
The second track, Rank and File, has more than a whiff of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories to it, with its atmospheric vocoded chorus and crunchy synth groove. Later on, there's the Soulwax-infused Crash Out, followed by Mars (you can have it) which almost sounds like it could have been a Faith No More song.
It's great. Like really great. There's a real sense that 44SOUNDS understands the inexact science of writing bangers. Slow introductions lead to big choruses lead to catchy second verses before hitting climactic instrumental sections. The whole album is pretty much like this and it works.
And it means something, too. There are things being expressed here. Feelings of isolation, disillusionment, and anxiety. At times the album can border on depressing, as songs like The Noise yearn "Let the rains come down on me, trust the sun will shine again", but this is always offset by grooves and harmonies to bring it back up. At other points it feels so optimistic that in another context it could border on corny, like the lovestruck Wheel and Spoke, but these moments are a welcome respite from the album's darker spots.
All in all, this is a really solid and eclectic electro-pop album. One that to me sounds very clearly like the efforts of one person, a very talented songwriter. I'd really recommend checking it out.