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Sep 13, 201270While these tales of people trying to escape their pasts aren't quite as masterful as Carried to Dust, Algiers has some great songs and a vitality that Calexico should try to hang onto in the future.
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Sep 4, 201280Algiers is a refined, consistent and beautifully textured set of songs.
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Sep 20, 201276It can be taken as a given that any longstanding fans will immediately enjoy Algiers, but for newcomers, this is also a perfect access point to what is one of the most consistent bands of the 2000s.
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Sep 12, 201290The music on this remarkable record creeps up on you, and subtleties abound; with Burns' vocals mic'd very close and much of the instrumental flourishes occurring deep in the mix, it's an intimate affair.
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Sep 4, 201280'Algiers' is a Calexico album unlike any other. More forceful, immediate and polished, whilst still possessing the bewitching musical interplays of old.
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Sep 12, 201250Algiers is sort of like the Grand Canyon: it may have some enjoyable attractions, but in the end, you're just staring at a giant hole.
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Sep 4, 201250Not a bad album, just a boring one.
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Sep 28, 201280It is full of unusual clarity and purpose and seems to have benefited from a certain amount of restraint.
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Sep 12, 201280Instead of taking the easy route of creating a love letter to New Orleans, the band went in the opposite direction, continuing to lead American music into the future.
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Sep 21, 201268There's no pulling them out of the abyss on this defiantly downcast Calexico record.
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Oct 1, 201250Algiers appears designed not to define, defy, offend and - most heinously- explore. [No.91, p.53]
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Sep 19, 201280Easily their most accessible album, Algiers is also Calexico at their most expansive and very, very best. [Oct 2012, p.94]
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Sep 4, 201280Endlessly listenable and beautifully performed, Algiers is another fine entry into this dependably excellent band's catalogue.
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Sep 4, 201260'Algiers', their seventh album, is far less surface-level appealing, but the sad twang of a pedal steel and Joey Burns' rich lyrical imagery draw you in, and depth and craftsmanship is slowly revealed.
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Sep 28, 201280Algiers is immense, genuine, and, at times, heartbreakingly beautiful.
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Sep 12, 201270While there are some fine moments on the recording, one is often left wishing that the duo had chosen to delve deeper into the acoustic soundscapes that they excel at rather than exploring the edges of confessional pop music as they do here.
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Sep 17, 201273The result is an album that never sounds settled or still, defined not by one or another place but by the tumultuous spaces in between.
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Sep 7, 201265Algiers is a good record, and though perhaps it could have been great, it's still another fine turn in the winding, ever-shifting road of the Calexico canon.
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Sep 6, 201280All in all, Algiers showcases a band utterly assured and fully aware of their intoxicating potency. [Oct 2012, p.95]
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Sep 11, 201291What New Orleans does seem to have inspired in Calexico, though, is some of its best songwriting.
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Sep 4, 201280Algiers, then, is everything we know Calexico to be: lucid with grit and tempered with melody, easily the equal of their career's best work.
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Sep 4, 201280On their sixth album, Calexico finally sound more like a band with memorable, individual songs, than a project dedicated to creating audio soundscapes evocative of the American southwest.
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Sep 25, 201280New Orleans seeped into this album anyway, with rhythmic crispness and a moody undercurrent; the production has swampy, haunted depths.
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Sep 10, 201270Algiers isn't so much a portrayal of New Orleans as it is a manifestation of the city's often observed ability to both elevate and weigh heavily on the soul.
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Sep 10, 201270In a similar context many other bands might have run dry by now. Not Calexico though, and 'Algiers' serves as a fitting reminder why they haven't.
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Sep 11, 201270Live with it a little and Algiers reveals itself to be a warm and compassionate affirmation of the band's deep-rooted DNA, with enough fresh twists to keep this compelling story moving forward.
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Sep 4, 201275The album gains a languid head of steam as it develops. [Aug/Sep 2012, p.109]