I rarely find so much to like and so much to dislike in the same album. In a nutshell, if you are into:

• steampunk
• varied musical styles (and fusions between them)
• tight and interesting instrumental arrangements
• pirate songs

and you have a tolerance for grim self-absorption, you may as well stop reading here and go get it.

The musicianship is excellent and highly engaging, with arrangements variously bringing to mind the Pogues, the Andrews Sisters, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Orkestar Bez Ime. Many of the instruments are electrified, which is not always to my personal taste but works well here, yielding a rich and darkly layered sound. The bass provides a solid foundation through much of the album, overlaid by an array of instrumentation including guitar, accordion, fiddle, bouzouki, keyboards/piano, and real and artificial percussion; in addition, one track successfully features a collage of old recordings. The song intros are reliably interesting, and on most tracks I found myself wishing they went on longer, which doesn't often happen.

On most tracks, when the band's lead singer and usual songwriter starts singing, my interest and enjoyment drop. While the melodies are solid, singable, and often memorable, the lead vocals are delivered with a swagger in which I can find neither humour nor self-deprecation, without which it's just not that likable. (The best pirate I've ever seen for combining swagger and likability is, hands down, Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow - Disney origin notwithstanding.)

The content of many of the songs - which are, with the exception of 'The Derelict,' original - strikes me similarly. They feature macho navel-gazing, rumination on on the narrator's heroism and/or villainy, and broadly stroked tales of escape from adversity into a sort of egocentric autonomy. (My understanding is that Abney Park started out in the goth/industrial scene; their roots may show here.) Some of the images are striking - for example, a mechanical boy building himself out of fallen gears - but the overall sense is of depressive self-absorption. Two exceptions are 'Victoria' and 'Throw Them Overboard' - the former being a lament for a failed love, and the latter a Luddite anthem of sorts with a humorously ambitious rhyme scheme. The rhyming in 'Throw Them Overboard' stands out all the more against the pedestrian standard set by couplets such as "My whole life I've planned this trip/To my plan I'm gonna stick."

My overall impression: good arrangements and musicianship; fair singing; fair to poor lyrics; excellent visual presentation. I suspect the band has a solid stage presence as well, given their attention to visual elements in costuming and instrument modification, but haven't had the pleasure of seeing them.