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Arm's Way
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Arm's Way Image
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 22 Ratings

  • Summary: The sophomore album for the Montreal-based indie group is its first on the Anti- label.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. Drowned In Sound
    90
    It is a towering, complex achievement and startling progression to boot.
  2. Filter
    88
    This is freaky, transcendent stuff. [Spring 2008, p.94]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. musicOMH.com
    80
    Arm's Way is a masterful and intricate offering progressing from their debut to create a new vision mixing a banquet of sounds and tempos to create an accomplished peace of musical craftsmanship.
  4. Austin Chronicle
    78
    The Pulp frontman embodies entertainment, presenting pop anthems as masterpieces, and Thorburn pours just such confidence into Arm's Way.
  5. Paste Magazine
    70
    As is typical of Thornburn's music, Arm's Way must be approached with an open mind.
  6. Pitchfork
    62
    These songs may be less immediately catchy, but all of them have a moment in which they break away from their straightforward guitar-rock underpinning and allow strange, spacious moments to burble up from within.
  7. Q Magazine
    40
    Everything here is overdone, whether it's Nick Thorburn's thatrical vocals, the myriad pointless time changes or J'aime Vous Von Quitter's horrid La Bamba-style outero. [June 2008, p.142]
    All this publication's reviews

See all 25 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Bmccormick40
    Aug 17, 2014
    10
    I listen to a lot of music, and this has got to be the most underrated album of the last decade. Where the critics said overstuffed, bloated,I listen to a lot of music, and this has got to be the most underrated album of the last decade. Where the critics said overstuffed, bloated, and overwrought, I say pick one song, any song, and it'll be stuffed with more ambition, skill, and smarts (and stunningly gorgeous lilting melodies that make you wish your heart could just break right there) than anything else I've heard....period. I'm resorting to hyperbole simply because there's no other way to describe this album that so many seem to have missed. It's an artistic triumph that doesn't stop giving. It's an artist working at the absolute peak of his formidable powers, going places I fear he'll never go again. His output since this album has been puzzling at best, and I can't help but think he took the critical response to Arm's Way to heart in a way that's stifled his artistic intuition. It's been six years since its release, and this album could not feel more essential to me.… Collapse
  2. The_Tortoise
    May 17, 2020
    9
    This album has some of my favorite songs on it, and is very underrated.
    The same thing happened when Weezer made a darker 2nd album, there    This album has some of my favorite songs on it, and is very underrated.
    The same thing happened when Weezer made a darker 2nd album, there was a horrible response, despite it being an incredible album.
    I think this album slightly suffers because the weakest tracks are all clumpled together early on, at #2-5.
    If they had put those shorter songs onto an EP, and kept the long tracks as the LP, it would be an easy 10/10.    … Expand

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