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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Burn The Maps
by The Frames


8.1

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The Cost

FILM:

Once

Official Artist Site

This is the first studio disc in four years for the Irish quartet, who are massively popular in their native country.

LABEL:	Anti
RELEASE DATE:	08 February 2005
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Austin Chronicle

Jaysus lads, get out the oven mitts – this one smokes.

Stylus Magazine

The album moves in gasps and groans, with a steady flow to its twelve songs that weaves together like a symphony.

All Music Guide

Burn the Maps is an elemental journey that tugs at the heart and sticks around in the mind.

Amazon.com

It’s an unpredictably bipolar record with plenty of mood swings and emotional shifts that will ultimately leave listeners with feelings of euphoria.

Billboard

Far and away the group's most determined work of its 15-year career.

Mojo

An overwhelming record that bends and blusters with grand passions, bittersweet beauty and no small hint of desperation. [Apr 2005, p.98]

Splendid

Unabashedly mellow and reflective, Burn the Maps may not hook mainstream music fans who've been conditioned to expect a tidily rhyming chorus ever thirty seconds.

The New York Times

It's an intensely private album, full of desolation, leave-takings, recriminations and regrets. [21 Feb 2005]

Planet

Meticulous recording, layered songwriting, and a little bit of "special effects" turns a bunch of good songs into a great album. [#9, p.70]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Some of these exercises in frustration are simply frustrating, but for the most part, The Frames' perverse restraint matches Hansard's lyrics, which are all about lowered expectations.

Blender

Maps... swap[s] the band's trademark dreariness for the U2-style arena-rock sweep that makes their live shows... so exciting. [Mar 2005, p.140]

Alternative Press

Burn The Maps' muted vibe demands that you turn down the lights, fire up the candles and listen hard. [Mar 2005, p.132]

Under The Radar

When it's good, it's great.... However, when it's bad, it borders on boring. [#9]

PopMatters

While nearly any song on Burn the Maps works effectively, the album as a whole can't quite maintain its momentum with such structural repetition.

Entertainment Weekly

These Irishmen have a way of merging lush Celtic melancholy with inspired Morse-code guitar noise... Alas, they also have a way with misogyny. [4 Feb 2005, p.135]

Pitchfork

Burn the Maps often sounds like simplicity transformed into bloat in an attempt to sound interesting.

Magnet

Once a means to subvert pop/rock formula, the band's abruptly shifting dynamics have themselves become formulaic. [#67, p.97]

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kathleen M. gave it a9:
Excellent, damn near 10.

Hein gave it a10:
Very Good!

Stepan Z. gave it a9:
This album makes me feel,intension of Hansard´s voice is absolutely unbeliavable ,I love it!

Jana gave it a10:
this album is... amazing. so the Frames are. one of the best stuff in recent music...

John P gave it a9:
The best album I've come across in a long while.

Vera V gave it a10:
I just love it! Songs like A Caution to the Birds, Finally, Sideways Down, Locusts and others have exceeded my expectations!

Louis F gave it an8:
The first 3 tracks reveal a unique melodic identity and a sense of progression and intensity, thanks to the great production and Glen Hansard's presence. But track 4 comes as a pain in the ears with its agressing chords and deliberate minimalism. The other 2 bad tracks are Fake (a cheap arena rocker trying to hide itself under unconventional breaks and shifts) and Underglass (which just doesn't sound right and is awkwardly placed). It's too bad, because these three songs break the flow, Trying and Sideways Down being two excellent pieces placed between very average tracks. Happily, the last 4 tracks are all very interesting experiments or successful appliances of convention. In short, this record with tracks 4, 6 and 7 removed would've made for a beautiful, sincere and fluid listening. Skip the bad ones and it's so much better.

Burn The Maps by The Frames

Burn The Maps
by The Frames