This is My Dinner is probably Mark's most enjoyable album in quite some time. His ramblings keep the cringes to a minimum, and are (for the most part) focused on a theme, that being the countries he hit up on the European tour this album was written on. He's a bit more confrontational than he was on the last record this year, but it comes across as more harmless. Mark is much more humorous this time, a rare moment where his sometimes awkward sense of humor doesn't feel shoehorned into his music.
The music is so much nicer too; cleaner, more memorable, and casts Mark's stories in a much more sympathetic light. The way the gentle background of the title track compliments Mark rushing home to see his cat one last time actually makes for a surprisingly touching moment. Candles is another highlight, with the music and stories matching up perfectly.
I mean, yeah, there are some cringey spots: the end of Linda Blair, with Mark just naming off songs he likes, is a momentum-killing bore. The cover of Rock n' Roll Singer (his third at least) shows Mark holding notes for some pretty excessively long periods of time. But overall it continues the upward trend started with Mark's solo album from this year, and definitely stands as his best post-Benji work.
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