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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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The Cost
by The Frames
The Dublin, Ireland band returns with a follow-up to 2005's 'Burn The Maps.'
| LABEL: |
Anti |
| RELEASE DATE: |
20 February 2007 |
| 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...
90
All Music Guide
This stuff is pure musical and lyrical inspiration.
83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The Frames' latest album, The Cost, contains only a handful of tracks like "Sad Songs," where the guitar springs along and the tempo stays steady... More typical is the title track, a noir-ish doom ballad in the Richard Thompson vein, designed to leave listeners stunned and morose.
82
Lost At Sea
The Cost is an emotional trip worth taking, one that seems to move further inward in its focus and insight with each track.
80
Boston Globe
The album is sophisticated and layered with deft orchestration. And yet, the band's songwriting and delivery display an earnestness and lack of pretension that's pure rock.
80
NOW Magazine
Singer Glen Hansard moves from quiet introspection to earnest Jeremy Enigk-like wailing and back again, all the while reminding you just how rewarding a listen The Cost is.
80
Slant Magazine
Epic in both sound and content, The Cost is both The Frames' most accomplished album and deeper and more rewarding than U2's recent work.
80
Uncut
There's a nervy, frayed soulfulness to these songs. [Feb 2007, p.76]
78
Filter
Ambitious, beautiful and sorrowful--it's everything a fan of the gloriously sad stuff could hope for on a rainy day. [#24, p.97]
75
The Phoenix
The Cost... captures them at their best.
70
Blender
Coldplay barely scratch these levels of exultation and agony. [Apr 2007, p.111]
70
PopMatters
However textured the musical journey The Cost offers, however, the album tends to lapse too excruciatingly into the darkness from which Hansard’s creativity seems to come.
70
Hartford Courant
"The Cost"... comprises 10 tracks that range from hopeful (but triumphant!) to sorrowful (but triumphant!) to morose (but triumphant!).
70
Under The Radar
Recording The Cost live has injected some feeling and adrenaline into an otherwise soft and ethereal album that somehow sizzles with underlying zeal and commitment. [#16, p.91]
70
Paste Magazine
While The Cost has as many majestic peaks as the Himalayas, the cumulative effect is exhaustingly monolithic. [Mar 2007, p.67]
70
Delusions of Adequacy
The Cost is hardly a poor album - in fact it's a quite good album - but after the release of so many gems, I find it difficult for it to completely measure up to the stiff competition.
70
The New York Times
The music stays diverse and dynamic. [26 Feb 2007]
70
Q Magazine
[It] is the stirring, rounded collection leader Glen Hansard has hinted at since they formed in 1990. [Feb 2007, p.99]
63
Los Angeles Times
The tempos are more uniform, and the huge arcs of all those ballads, hoisted high by fiddle, abstract guitar fragments and Glen Hansard's scratchy tenor, feel surprisingly safe.
60
Alternative Press
It's a bit unfortunate that the Irishmen decided to keep their songwriting and musical prowess stagnant. [Mar 2007, p.143]
60
Magnet
Pleasant if unspectacular. [#74, p.96]
60
Billboard
The set as a whole lacks variety and rarely shifts tempo. [24 Feb 2007]
52
Pitchfork
While there's nothing wrong with a predictable approach when deployed with expertise, it's disappointing from a band like the Frames.
50
Rolling Stone
The album slides into tedium and worse. [8 Mar 2007, p.86]
50
Playlouder
Alas, 'The Cost' is closer to the Noughties ipoddery of 'sensitive' folksters like Damien Rice or James Blunt than a Fleetwood Mac or a James Taylor.
42
Entertainment Weekly
The Frames just about define overripe, both musically (imagine if Coldplay decided to make its power ballads even more bombastic) and lyrically. [23 Feb 2007, p.99]
40
Sputnikmusic
Despite pulling out all the stops towards the end, The Cost is everything The Frames usually eschew: it’s bland, it’s monotonous and it barely achieves a tempo shift across forty-four minutes.
33
Stylus Magazine
The Cost is bleached of any sort of lifeblood, stumbling out of the gate and moping towards the finish line.
30
Spin
A tepid effort that bogs down their previously rugged and introspective rock with power-ballad vibrato, lurid over-orchestration, and petulantly vague lyrics. [Feb 2007, p.83]
30
Austin Chronicle
Everything about The Cost is inflated and with little payoff, a blight for a band worth so much more.
The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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