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All Things Will Unwind
by
All Things Will Unwind Image
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

  • Summary: The experimental pop singer's return to Detroit influenced the themes of her folk-inspired album.
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  • Record Label: Asthmatic Kitty
  • Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Rock, Dream Pop
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Top Track

Be Brave
I am a bird in water A whale on sand I am the flood, the fire, the oil spill I am feeling scared and I am overwhelmed And so I don my mask and finger... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. AllMusic
    Dec 7, 2011
    90
    All Things Will Unwind finds this musical auteur at the top of her game, maturing, pushing her already broad boundaries, and brimming with imagination.
  2. musicOMH.com
    Oct 13, 2011
    90
    [A] glorious album, that is full of both gravity and levity, wisdom and beauty, and that is, most of all, infused with the honesty and humanity that make of it such a triumph.
  3. Filter
    Oct 19, 2011
    82
    All Things Unwind is a cohesive trek that leaves the listener enraptured by Worden's talent and undeniable magnetism.
  4. Spin
    Oct 5, 2011
    80
    The luminous All Things Will Unwind uses strings, brass, marimba, and mellotron, brilliantly showcasing her operatic, slightly scary voice in tricky songs that remain fresh after repeated plays.
  5. Under The Radar
    Oct 19, 2011
    70
    Traversing life with wide-eyed self-awareness isn't always comfortable, but My Brightest Diamond sublimate heartbreak into transcendent beauty.
  6. Slant Magazine
    Oct 17, 2011
    70
    She inevitably succeeds by walking this fine line, a quality that gives her music its own stamp, saving it from the trap of uninspired pastiche.
  7. Dusted Magazine
    Oct 17, 2011
    50
    On All Things Will Unwind, though, the bursts of inspiration in each corner and crevice remain too stiff to merge into anything more than the sum of their parts.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. aarondu
    Oct 30, 2011
    5
    What is wrong with this album? Why has My Brightest Diamond not yet exceeded the sum of its quite glorious parts? Like Worden's previousWhat is wrong with this album? Why has My Brightest Diamond not yet exceeded the sum of its quite glorious parts? Like Worden's previous albums as MBD, Unwind fails to break through the singer's showy persona to something more personal and raw. Worden's voice is an amazing instrument--she could sing the phonebook and I'd listen--but it seems she hasn't found the right combination of theater and life, and she frequently errs on the side of theater. "There's a Rat" and "Ding Dang" are cringingly twee, with the high-pitched vocal squeaks on the former and spoken action words of "Snap! Kerplam! Kalamazoo!" on the latter. If these are songs about the urban ruins of Detroit, why are they so damn happy? What purpose are all these instruments actually serving? Indeed Worden's most beautiful song to date is The Gentlest Gentleman, a B-side from her previous LP "A Thousand Shark's Teeth." It has a quality that Unwind sorely lacks--understated and genuine, it impresses without trying. It's a hard quality to describe or place, and some tracks on this record truly are exciting and engaging. The self pep-talk "Be Brave" builds to an electrifying climax; the intriguing duet "Everything Is in Line" offers a haunting dialogue between Worden and an effeminate, otherworldly voice; the quiet "She Does Not Brave the War" offers a touching reminder of overlooked women who take care of us. One could almost find Worden's cutesiness and musical theater sensibilities to be an audacious risk in our ironic age--hell, didn't everyone think that about Joanna Newsom's Ys?--but while Newsom's creaky voice gave us a way to empathize with her weird tales, Worden's soaring pipes are just another layer of shellack. Which is too bad, because this could have been one hell of a record.… Expand

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