SEKAI NO OWARI had grown up by the time it released 2019’s Eye. Its fifth album came four years after Tree, the band’s biggest commercial hit to date and an exuberant set finding the quartet embracing festival-ready EDM. The youthful and optimistic themes of its third album defined SEKAI NO OWARI for the immediate future. It also motivated the project to attempt an English-language crossover under the name End of the World. As it tried to make it abroad, the quartet stuck to a whimsical dance-pop sound in line with Western contemporaries Clean Bandit and DNCE, both of which SEKAI NO OWARI eventually collaborated with. By 2019, though, all four members were in their mid-thirties and ready to grow into a more adult sound; Eye captures this maturation. Sonically, the digital fireworks and Auto-Tuned vocals have been drastically reduced. Instead, the band puts a greater emphasis on pianist Saori’s playing and sophisticated string arrangements on songs such as “Blue Flower” and “SOS.” When electronics get introduced, SEKAI NO OWARI uses them to conjure a darker mood rather than the carnival atmosphere of Tree. “Re:set” pairs acid bass with Fukase’s muffled screams. “Food” brings buzz-saw synthesizer melodies, leaving little room to breathe. The kind of cynicism that comes with age abounds on the album. “Anti-Hero” best highlights this shift, with Fukase using his now-standard rap-sing approach to rail against society over a dark musical backdrop that could have been written by Danny Elfman. Yet, part of maturing also involves appreciating the good, and the band still finds time to cherish the wonders of the world on stripped-down ballads such as “Yozakura” and intimate acoustic-guitar number “Eden,” as well as in the dramatic build of the album’s acid-house-inflected closing number, “Stargazer.”