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After the Disco
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After the Disco Image
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 61 Ratings

  • Summary: The second full-length album for the duo of James Mercer and Brian Burton follows the release of a short film with Kate Mara as an astronaut and Anton Yelchin as her lover, Oliver.
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Top Track

Holding on for Life
Girl take a seat, rest your weary bones your secrets safe in my hands tell me about the years and let me buy an hour maybe help me to... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 38
  3. Negative: 1 out of 38
  1. Magnet
    Feb 21, 2014
    80
    Broken Bells' initial salvos may have set their parameters, but After The Disco expands, transcends and redefines them. [No. 106, p.52]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. Q Magazine
    Jan 28, 2014
    80
    The panoramic melancholy may lack variety for some, but sorrow rarely sparkles this wonderfully. [Feb 2014, p.112]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. Spin
    Feb 5, 2014
    80
    After the Disco is the rare, superior sequel--think Toy Story 2--to Mercer and Burton's seemingly one-off self-titled 2010 debut as Broken Bells.
  4. The Line of Best Fit
    Jan 17, 2014
    70
    A welcome comeback.
  5. PopMatters
    Feb 3, 2014
    70
    As a whole, After the Disco finds Broken Bells no longer feeling like a side project. There is a degree of consistency and focus not present on their eponymous debut.
  6. No Ripcord
    Feb 4, 2014
    60
    After The Disco deserves to be heard and delivers a truly pleasant listening experience, rousing even, when the hooks hit the spot. But--and perhaps this is what the duo insightfully intended when they gave the album its title--don’t expect a party.
  7. Consequence
    Feb 3, 2014
    33
    The songs, sonically and structurally, don’t sound contemporary at all. At best, they sound like disco by way of these two artists, both of whom have been making similar songs for five, maybe ten years.

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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. DiscoFans
    Feb 8, 2014
    10
    I had the opportunity to interview and I can definitely recommend it. Many hours of listening pleasure. http://goo.gl/OSQxrlI had the opportunity to interview and I can definitely recommend it. Many hours of listening pleasure. http://goo.gl/OSQxrl http://goo.gl/OSQxrl http://goo.gl/OSQxrl… Expand
  2. moonman1994
    Feb 9, 2014
    9
    The album flows together really well and that makes it very solid and perfect to listen to all the way through. It also just gets better andThe album flows together really well and that makes it very solid and perfect to listen to all the way through. It also just gets better and better the more you listen to it. The only flaw is that the music is not as varied as it was on the first album.… Expand
  4. bigtime123
    May 1, 2014
    9
    Amazing piece of work. Even better than their first album.
    "Leave it Alone" is haunting me, I can't get it out of my head.
    Just saw them    Amazing piece of work. Even better than their first album.
    "Leave it Alone" is haunting me, I can't get it out of my head.
    Just saw them live and they sound just as good live as they do in the studio.
    A rare band these days.
    Highly recommended    … Expand
  5. RedOwlReviews
    Feb 5, 2014
    8
    What we have here in "After the Disco" is a pleasant combination of classic 2010s indie alternative structure and instrumentation, coruscatingWhat we have here in "After the Disco" is a pleasant combination of classic 2010s indie alternative structure and instrumentation, coruscating space-age synths, evocative melodies, and at times, swooping ballads. In tracks like "After the Disco," "The Changing Lights," and "Leave It Alone," Broken Bells have precisely translated their thought processes into delightfully pungent music. In other tracks ("Medicine," "The Angel and the Fool"), not so much. The album ultimately boils down to a potpourri of ingenious ideas and rhythmical atmospheres that often, but not always, adhere to the thin backbone of the album.

    FINAL SCORE: 75 (pretty good ----------o---------- great)    … Expand
  6. VonSeux
    Apr 29, 2014
    8
    Really interesting and enjoying album. I do not rate it higher only because it's part of the nostalgia trend. If you can, enjoy it for what itReally interesting and enjoying album. I do not rate it higher only because it's part of the nostalgia trend. If you can, enjoy it for what it is with a nice sound system with pumpimg bass. The production is top notch.… Expand
  7. WxJim
    Mar 18, 2014
    7
    Listening to this album is a very different experience from their first. On 'Broken Bells' the songs had little to no cohesion, and whileListening to this album is a very different experience from their first. On 'Broken Bells' the songs had little to no cohesion, and while perhaps better written overall, each song could stand entirely alone. This time, the songs compliment and lean on each other, sometimes a little too much. To me, 'Holding on for Life' doesn't really fit in with the rest, and 'Medicine' and 'No Matter What You're Told' sort of blend together too much (which may have been intentional?). Furthermore the songs don't hit as many emotional highs as you would expect from anything James Mercer puts his voice to, certainly not to the level that the first album did.

    That aside, it is still a great listen. To me the standouts are the title song "After the Disco', the opener 'Perfect World' and 'The Remains of Rock and Roll'. The one that I will still be listening to years from now is 'Lazy Wonderland', I see it as the 'October' from this album, and a song that could have easily come off of a Shins album.    … Expand
  8. Cee-lo
    Feb 4, 2014
    5
    Mouse and the guy from The Shins are just wasting their time doing this. But we all know what they are capable of. There's nothing new,Mouse and the guy from The Shins are just wasting their time doing this. But we all know what they are capable of. There's nothing new, nothing interesting, yet boring as hell. Perfect supermarket music.… Expand

See all 11 User Reviews

Awards & Rankings

97
#97 Most Discussed Album of 2014

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