• Record Label: Downtown
  • Release Date: Apr 16, 2013
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Negative: 0 out of 5
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  1. Apr 18, 2013
    60
    Two downtempo instrumentals do little to elevate their surroundings, and the album’s longer tracks reiterate more than they evolve. Still, Houses accomplish their aim of filling an hour with a cinematic, transportive music--a perfect soundtrack to milling about the end times.
  2. Apr 18, 2013
    56
    That A Quiet Darkness doesn’t offer much in the way of immediate pleasure shouldn’t be entirely to its detriment, but this album doesn’t grow on you; it wears on you.
User Score
7.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Jun 13, 2013
    5
    The good- at its high points, this is an incredibly lush and gorgeous album. The bad- there are a few spots where the album becomesThe good- at its high points, this is an incredibly lush and gorgeous album. The bad- there are a few spots where the album becomes uninspired, repetitive and drags a bit. The ugly- the fourth song, "The Tired Moon" ruins the entire album for me. It sounds like 5:25 of crappy, leftover video game music or something a five-year-old made using Garage Band. It's almost as if they included it as a (bad) joke. Too bad because the three songs leading up to it are amazing and the seven songs after it are for the most part quite good. Full Review »
  2. May 19, 2013
    5
    This album, is beautiful. The combination of male and female vocals on almost all tracks is a real pleaser. Just look to the first threeThis album, is beautiful. The combination of male and female vocals on almost all tracks is a real pleaser. Just look to the first three tracks and then, “Carrion” and “Smoke Signals”. The album is wonderful in its production. It is calming and soothing and it lures you in from the beginning. But it’s like that pretty girl you’ve been eyeing for an age, and when you finally talk to her she answers everything with, “Whaaaaatt?”. That’s the album’s problem, once you get past the beauty, the album is superficial. Don’t get me wrong, the opening that consists of “Beginnings”, “The Beauty Surrounds” and “The Big Light” are amazing songs. The album’s opener is powerful and becoming, and like the rest of the album, it is a long song, running just over five minuets, but it doesn’t become bloated.

    “The Beauty Surrounds” is the track that caught my attention to this Los Angeles Indie duet comprised of Dexter Tortoriello and Megan Messina. They remind me a little like a different shade of Beach House, just not as vibrant maybe, just up there in quality with “Bloom”. I feel “A Quiet Darkness” can loose itself, it’s an album they takes you away too far, so far that you want to be brought back. “The Big Light”, shows the decline in quality after the opening two songs until we get to the last two, “The Bloom” and “A Quiet Darkness” which feels like a two parter.

    The former song, feels like Shoegaze and Dream Pop in one, and amongst the indie vibes on the album, it is those two elements that I like about the band. They manage to finish strongly which some bands can struggle to do. “The Bloom” is ethereal and it’s thinking music, music to lie in the sun on a grassy hill watching over the horizon; it’s music of a different place. Then the final song, it louder in comparison. It combines every element that the album has conjured up and feels like the tone we were getting at the beginning of the album. Honestly though, “Beginnings” and “The Bloom” are two songs you should really hear.

    Unfortunately, the album outside these tracks, fails to do much apart from repetition. Whilst I look forward to more music from Houses, and I will check out there back catalogue, there is substance to like here, it may be little, but it is wonderful.
    Full Review »