Relistening to Neighborhoods with some proper headphones, shit - it gets better as time goes on. It's forward-thinking, it's a great (in places) alternative rock album ( I guess that's where it fits).
There are some disjointed duds that kill the pacing and hinder the quality of the album. In spite of that, Ghost, Hearts All Gone, Natives, Kaleidoscope , Wishing Well and Even If She Falls are all fantastic songs. They're mature, have things lingering sadnes/wistfullness that kind of seeps through every bit of the album. It's a perfect album to listen to in a city at night, which I guess fits with the aestehtic and part of their concept of the title.
It fucking kills me that Tom didn't listen to the masters of the album and that he fucked up the way they recorded, which he later admitted caused disunity. It also kills me how he can shit out a song like Wishing Well ( he wrote it on the notes of his phone at a kids b day party or something, whilst Interscope were pressing for them to wrap the album up).
The whole thing really is reflective of the state of the band and their personal lives/relationships at that point. Miscommunication, frustration, regret, reflection entwined with moments of brilliance and chemistry.