Kerrang gave it 4/5. The reviewer said it would have gotten 5, only they found Building a little bit on the generic side.
Of all the songs I've heard I think Beneath the Burning Tree and Waterfront Danceclub are definetily the best, I just think the high pitched guitars sound much better with the singing than heavy guitars. Honestly, though, I do miss the screaming, a lot. I think the songs could use a little screaming, now everything becomes boring and bland after a few listens. I think the singer mumbles way too much, you can't make out the words most of the time, the vocals get washed away by the guitars most of the time. I guess that's always been the case but without the screaming I just noticed how much so. The drums could've been more prominent too... I'm not too impressed, really. This sound is a thing of the past as far as I'm concerned.
Unless you're listening to lower quality rips I don't really see where you've got any of that from to be honest. The singing is much stronger than it's been before and although the tracks released so far have been a bit hit or miss the mixing has been consistently good, in my opinion at least. Plus they seem heading more towards a general rock sound, with some more agressive songs and some more melodic/softer songs, which is probably less liable to become dated sounding than if they'd just carried on as they were on Casually Dressed and their EPs with nothing else. I am at the point where pretty much all of the full songs released so far have grown on me to the point where I at least like them. Constant Illuminations is definitely my least favourite as, although there are one or two really good riffs in that track, it never manages to be quite as good as the sum of its parts.
So yeah, the album leaked. The fans who've heard it so far seem pretty split if Last.fm is anything to go by, whereas I've read four reviews (Kerrang, Strange Glue, Rock Sound, the one I posted previously) saying it's great. I was going to wait until Monday but I'm almost ashamed to say that impatience has gotten the best of me even with only just over two days left. Either way I'm buying it on the day of release. This is what I posted on last.fm; "http://strangeglue.com/reviews/funeral-for-a-friend-memory-and-humanity I more or less agree with that review so far in that it's a very good album, not quite great, but very good nontheless. I find it better than their previous albums lyrically, if nothing else. There are plenty of great guitar and vocal melodies in there and it's also quite reminiscent of Rival Schools in a lot of places which is definitely a good thing. No general gripes, except that a couple of the higher tempo tracks (Constant Illuminations and Ghosts for instance) are pretty uninspired in complete contrast to the majority of the album. I'm pretty sure my opinion of the album will probably improve once I've heard it in CD quality (the rips I have of the singles are sharper sounding than what I've been listening to) and when I've spent more time listening to a few of the slower tracks."