First impressions....
I'm listening to it now and I'm enjoying it, which I was not at all confident about.
I like the cover! Now I've seen the whole package and can hold it as a proper LP cover, I think it works much better than the last few photo covers. The full package is nicely put together with lyrics and photos following the themes of the album. The autobiographical narrative is reasonably obvious I think but works well. The music is a big improvement on the last few albums, to my ears anyway, because - at long last - we have some light and shade, not as much as I would like, but it is there.
There is a sense of a following a tale and it is easy to see how the music suits the moods of the story; some passages do draw you in and Steve sings really well throughout. There are at least three passages so far which have given me time to reflect and break up the frantic nature of some of the instrumentals. Steve also has returned to making the guitar sound radically different in places, once again making you listen to see if it's a voice, a keyboard, or a guitar.
Now, its no masterpiece and doesn't need to be at this stage. But on one listen I like it more than the albums from Wolflight onwards, it stands up well against what I think of as his middle period (90s and 2000s) and in places there are little passages which would fit into his early stuff.
Yes, there is too much going on at times, but sometimes that works and here it is broken up with more variety than we've had recently and also suits the story.
I think it will repay further listens much more than the last few and I'm looking forward to getting to know it better. He certainly could and should play some of this live.
He doesn't need the money, must be one of the hardest workers on the live circuit and yet has managed to produce what sounds like a very genuine and sincere effort, with something of a return to form in places. Good on him!