By a lot of accounts, Gossip was not the kind of album a lot of fans were expecting from Sleeping With Sirens and in some ways they had lost their identity as a heavy band. How It Feels To Be Lost is seeming to backtrack on this change to their identity.
Opening track and lead single Leave It All Behind shows their melodic side is back to being kept in check with visceral screams and chugging riffs. Woven into the heavier instrumental is frontman Kellin Quinn's delicate hook vocals that will leave the tune firmly in listeners' heads for a while after listening. Similarly, Never Enough sounds musicallysimilar to tones from Of Mice & Men's Defy album, which speaks volumes about how huge the sound is; guitar sounds rivalling the biggest commercial rock records and gang vocals to match the arena metal bands are a good mix.
Screams are all well and good, but many are still sceptical until they hear about breakdowns - don't worry, they've got that covered too. Agree To Disagree sees Quinn hit a scream of "now there's no crossing the line, stay on your own side" before a pounding single-string riff takes over the full soundspace. Break Me Down is one of the heavier tracks on the album and is clearly geared towards a breakdown, so the presence of low tempo, thundering passage will see riots in pits in months and years going forward. Medicine (Devil in My Head) hold some huge riffs and a crazy electronic-influenced breakdown section to knock home the final chorus.
At the other end of the spectrum, Dying in the Detail is one of the best soft verses the band have ever released. Delayed lead and acoustic guitars blending under the vocal lines of "you're just like me, you're a disaster, you're in another fight, you wish that you could get it right" to create an image of safety conveyed to the vulnerable members of the fanbase needing picking up. The song progresses into an outcast anthem, likely to be belted out across festivals and arenas worldwide to mark the close of their set.
Overall, the album is a Jekyll and Hyde mix of the melodic and chaotic; a beautiful mix of feeling and songwriting experience. The merging of earlier styles and more recent feelings have worked well, producing one of the strongest albums of their career to date,