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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Outside Closer
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Domino
Release Date: 08 February 2005
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
The Leeds, England band follow their acclaimed 2001 release 'Cold House' with this 10-track effort which, like its predecessor, combines acoustic guitars and some glitchy electronica elements into moody indie rock.
Also By This Artist: Cold House
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: Bracken: We Know About The Need
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
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...
Drowned In Sound
Do yourself a favour and eschew fashion for something with real substance: Outside Closer is an album of the year, fact.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Beautifully crafted, complex music which intrigues and begs for another listen.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Don’t be put off by the glossy patina; there’s a lot to hear on this record, as repeated listening makes plain.
Read Full Review >Urb
The distorted pop ambience of Outside Closer could very well make these Brits the Notwist of 2005. [Mar 2005, p.118]
Neumu.net
It's a sound that doesn't loudly proclaim itself, but nevertheless insinuates its way in, until it feels quietly indispensable.
Read Full Review >Filter
Their most realized album yet. [#15, p.101]
Pitchfork
What's remarkable is that instead of sounding autumnal and frigid, the bulk of this album has a warmth, an emotional weight, and a sense of underlying motion that competes damn well against the occasional fireworks. Some of these pleasures may be subtle or take time to grasp, but the sinking-in is gorgeous and worth the wait.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
Outside Closer seems to have mined an infinitesimal point on the musical map, something near the intersection of RJD2, Sigur Rós and Iron & Wine. It’s the detail and obsession with which Hood has excavated this minute point that makes the album so warmly, hopelessly riveting.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
It's a beautiful restatement of the group's strengths--and a consolidation of the gains made on Cold House.
Read Full Review >Almost Cool
If their last album seemed like a drastic change to their longtime fans, then Outside Closer will seem like more of a logical succession of sound.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
A beautiful album of white noise married with catchy shoegaze harmonies. It's like Four Tet mixed with Radiohead. [#8, p.106]
All Music Guide
The songs are wearier than ever and full of life at the same time, with each element seeming to fall into place by sheer luck.
Read Full Review >Lost At Sea
Although Outside, Closer dwells in cheerless minimalism it is a joy to listen to.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
They've created a world of tender reflection encompassing engaging melodic cycles, pastoral textures, glitchy interjections, acoustic decoration, melancholic strings, loose, jazz tinged drums, lonely horns, yearning guitar laments and delicate vocals: All melded into ebbs and flows that form a coherent universe through songs which all have their own defining characteristics.
Read Full Review >Mojo
There's a slow-burning moodiness... together with a new directness. [Mar 2005, p.101]
Rolling Stone
The warm strumming and sparse beats make for an aching melancholy that stirs memories of Radiohead.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
Outside Closer weaves an oddly distinctive set of roundelays between the Air-like poppiness and cheery melancholia of the negatives and the Massive Attack jams with The Clash in Reykjavik melancholia of winter 72, concluding with two of the most depressing songs I’ve ever heard.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Hood’s particular brand of indie rock is easily recognizable and refreshingly unique, and despite a few faults along the way, Outside Closer is an excellent album, if not totally fulfilling of its promise.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
It demands the right frame of mind, temperament and that ideal rainy-day traveling environment, in which nothing works out. When you're in the middle of such a moment, Hood's there to provide the soundtrack for your emotional nosedive.
Read Full Review >Splendid
Outside Closer is maddeningly indirect, and the diminishing returns of its final minutes might make you wonder why you invested the time in the first place. But honestly, how many albums can claim to have so palpable an effect?
Read Full Review >Uncut
Surging volume is still far outweighed by wispy melancholy, but the contrast is rewarding. [Mar 2005, p.104]
Q Magazine
A modish conflation of acoustic guitars, violins, subtle electronics and artfully detached vocals, located somewhere near Amnesiac-era Radiohead. [Feb 2005, p.104]
The Guardian
At first, The Negatives and Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive feel like frustrating attempts at complicated chill-out, but as the songs continue to float fitfully by, listening to Hood artfully juggle paranoia and optimism becomes captivating.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Outside Closer will have quite a significant impact on 2005, but it's a rather wintry and solemn way to begin the new year.
Read Full Review >Magnet
"The Lost You" is a breathless, if unfortunate, peak. What follows are four miserable, mostly tuneless dirges that bring a slow death to [the] album. [#67, p.97]
Junkmedia
For the most part, Outside Closer fails to separate itself from the pack of glitch-rock albums it now must share the market with.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Genre-bridging should excite, thrill, agitate; yet... Hood are--still--hipster-miserablist Pet Shop Boys fans threatening suicide during rainy countryside walks. [15 Jan 2005, p.43]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Anandgyan gave it a9:
Recognizable from a snippet; yes they do have their sound and it's so nice. I cal it elegiac electronica with sprinkles of prog rock ... well they do have drums and guitars but I'll be daydreaming before dancing.
Christian B gave it a6:
I like Hood. The new album seems to have too much texture and doesn't feel as organic as Cold House. I have listened to it numerous times and it seems to wear on my nerves. I do not know why I feel this way because I want to like it so much. I do feel that it is getting way to many high marks and reviews. This album just might be the ultimate grower. I do think that Hood are very talented and have alot of great ideas, maybe too many.
Linda gave it an8:
Actually I'd never heard of Hood before Outside Closer was album of the week on a local Sydney Aust. community station. I'd hear tracks in the on my way to work and they would stick in my mind all day. On the way home I'd hear them again and they would stick in my head while trying to get to sleep. Not sure why I like it so much, but I do. And is that all that counts in the end?
Francesca C gave it a9:
Outside Closer is impossibly textural. It is melodic and emotional, anxious and beautiful, all of which are traits which make for important, timeless music. It is expected that Outside Closer will stand out as one of the albums of 2005 if not purely because Hood remain true to their desires not to downsize their penchant for introspect and questions of the heart above the need for mass exploitation. A truly important band and a brilliant album!
Randall G gave it a9:
it is amazing, NME and Junkmedia(read full review) manage to speak of nothing on this album.. Glitch-rock???, hardly or better yet barely.. how did they miss 7 out of 10 of the tracks.? honestly every track on this album has it's own character yet the album holds together. outside,closer contains Hood's past and at the same time is a complete leap forward into new complex/complete song structures. it has been wowing me for nearly two months. petshopboys???? try mixing neworder, talktalk(late) and this really god damned amazing band called Hood
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
PHENOMENAL! Hood keep getting better and better. Don't wait another 4 years for the next record, guys!
Your Mother gave it an8:
I agree. What the fuck do NME know? Constantly looking for the next big retro garage band so they can slag off everything that isn't really relevent to 15-18 year old indie kids. This is sad, evocative and highly inventive music.
