I had this for about a week, and I finally got around to listening to it this weekend.
I keep hearing the Sgt. Peppers influence comments, but when did having horns, an orchestra with lots of clapping in the background mean you've embraced Sgt. Peppers? Come on. There's so much more to Sgt. Peppers than telling a story to your audience with lots of instruments that this comparison is off the mark.
To me it sounds like a typical self indulgent sophomore effort, from a band that I liked the debut and was worried about the second album. The difference here is that I hated the first album. The first album was SOOO self indulgent that this one comes off as not so bad. I can see myself listening to it every now and then.
I can totally see their fan base revolting. And I think that was intentional. Had they made another "A Fever you can't Sweat Out" they would have been so pigeon holed that when their fans grew up they'd be playing to nobody. I like what they did here.
As for the Pop comments, that's the one downside to this album. It doesn't have more than one decent Pop single that will sell this album, and I think they know it. If it did, they wouldn't have played a new version of an old song on SNL a couple weeks ago.
That being said,
the commercial on MTV where the band is staring at the world's largest thermometer (between LA and Las Vegas in Baker, CA), cracks me up every time I see it. I've done that. I bought the album for that commercial, and that commercial alone.