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...

100

Entertainment Weekly

It's their trademark boisterous hyper-melodies... that will have you involuntarily humming their praises for weeks (months!) to come. [26 Aug 2005, p.59]

100

Lost At Sea

With Twin Cinema, The New Pornographers have elevated themselves from a band I really like to a band that I can't live without.

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100

Neumu.net

In danger of hitting the point of "OK, we get it" -- when that zap of newness wears off and a successful band suddenly feels less than essential -- the New Pornographers instead come up pretty big on Twin Cinema, transitioning to a sound just as catchy as their old stuff but with more space for the tunes to breathe.

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Spin

There's a nifty kind of egolessness about the NPs: They're team players in a way that few other bands are right now. [Aug 2005, p.93]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Twin Cinema doesn't so much vary its predecessors' formula as crawl inside it.

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Billboard

The group has already produced a barrage of great singles, but this time around, it digs in its collective heels for a worthy album, allowing the songs, and not just the musicians, to shine. [27 Aug 2005]

Tiny Mix Tapes

The songs on Twin Cinema are simply of a higher caliber than anything the Pornos' individual members can create by themselves or had created together before.

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Under The Radar

The New Pornographers shine because every member gets their due. [#10, p.107]

Pitchfork

With more developed ideas than Mass Romantic and a more cohesive sound than Electric Version, it's their most consistent, confident, and best album to date.

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PopMatters

The New Pornographers are a recurring reminder of how ebullient this kind of music can be, which makes them radicals of the form.

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Rolling Stone

Like the other two [albums], it's speaker-blowingly brilliant. [11 Aug 2005, p.70]

Blender

It's Twin Cinema's relative melancholy that makes it the band's best album yet. [Sep 2005, p.134]

Junkmedia

There's just a little more space on this record for the songs to build and breathe. Twin Cinema is the first New Pornographers record you'll want to sit through from beginning to end.

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All Music Guide

While that may disappoint some waiting for a masterpiece, there's no shame in mining the same ground as long as they make records as tight and tuneful as this.

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Austin Chronicle

It's evident that the band's traditionally simple sound has been augmented with greater influences and a desire to overstuff, miraculously without overkill.

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Filter

One of the great pleasures of Twin Cinema is the way every morsel seems to have been scrutinized. [#17, p.96]

cokemachineglow

Is it their best album? Maybe not. Is it still the best pop album of the year? Of course.

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ShakingThrough.net

Twin Cinema has the winning distinction of being the most rocking set from the Pornographers to date -- and also the strangest.

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Delusions of Adequacy

Twin Cinema is another great pop album from the New Pornographers, a release that's crammed with so many memorable melodies that the bumpier moments fade into the background.

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Prefix Magazine

The slickly produced Twin Cinema tweaks the formula to include subdued moments, climactic codas and fully unified vocals, elevating the band’s ideas to complete cohesion and transcending its previous output.

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Slant Magazine

Best (and nearly perfect) when taken two or three songs at a time, as an entire album, Twin Cinema overstays its welcome. It's simply too much of a good thing.

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Paste Magazine

Exhilarating and complex enough to keep you warm year-round. [Aug/Sep 2005, p.108]

Uncut

By turns darker and more challenging than 2003's dazzling Electric Version. [Oct 2005, p.96]

Dusted Magazine

The band sound more pleasingly unified than they ever have. By the same token, the album feels less adventurous, at least in terms of stylistic diversity, but the focus on Newman's exuberantly literate power-pop affords it more impact.

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Stylus Magazine

It would be a joke to call an album as lush as Twin Cinema “lo-fi,” but it is a more subtle, reined-in New Pornographers.

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Mojo

Rolls by like a summery blast of mid-'60s AM radio. [Sep 2005, p.89]

Splendid

It isn't identical to Mass Romantic or Electric Version, but it differs from them in ways that probably could have been predicted, modeled and simulated.

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No Ripcord

In short, it's no Mass Romantic, but it will do quite nicely.

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Q Magazine

Shuttles between nerdy and mesmeric. [Oct 2005, p.119]

Los Angeles Times

Lacking a central, prominent voice, "Twin Cinema" is frequently the schematics without the soul, a formal tour de force with bravado to spare but not a lot of inner life. [4 Sep 2005]

Alternative Press

The least imaginative album of their career. [Oct 2005, p.158]

New Musical Express

Inevitably, when the Prozac finally wears off the more 'thoughtful' numbers fall flat on their faces. [20 Aug 2005, p.58]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 109 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Eric C. gave it a10:
Impossibly fun. I was only a couple of songs in to this album before it became one of my favorites. I'll blast this music from my stereo for a while.

susie k gave it an8:
Very good although not as good as Electric Version. It took me a while to get into this album, but I think it was worth it. There are a few songs on this album that rub me the wrong way depending upon my mood, but there are others that I need to crank up as loud as I can no matter when I hear them.

Dave G gave it a10:
I don't just give away perfect scores, but after a year of this album I can't give it any less than one. This is pop music at its very finest, and the crowning achievement of The New Pornographers. If you haven't heard this album, it's about time you got on board.

Carlos D gave it a9:
C'mon people, this is the most ebullient pop music you'll find anywhere, and it's smart to boot. Stands up to repeated listenings and never grows old

Tim D gave it an8:
That NME mark proves just how awful a publication it has become under conor mcnicholas tutorship. Their constant overlooking of the terriffic american/canadian pop scene (picaresque 5/10? idiots) in favour of horrendously dull british acts is simply derisory. How you can big up the pipettes and the arctic monkeys while their much better behaved siblings monkey swallows thew universe and band club toil round in northern clubs is quite, quite bizarre. It really cries out for new editorship. Oh, and twin cinema is a very very strong album; bleeding heart show is so jawdroppingly gorgeous i tend to dribble just thinking about it.

emi s gave it a10:
one of the best albums in 2005.

mr. hankey gave it a10:
The New Pornographers could be considered a band full of fun, quirky and electric songs that are indie pop. Well for this album Twin Cinema, The New Pornographers have seemed to look at their idols because I can hear some classic rock in there. Twin Cinema in my opinion is the New Pornographers best because it isn't as "poppy" as their past releases that were still brilliant. Twin Cinema the title track of the album stands out as a song that is a fusion of syths, guitar and drums that in the end becomes an anthem. The Bleeding Heart Show is a ballad of brilliance that is one of the best of the album because it is so likeable, also a song that you can sing along to. Sing Me Spanish Techno is probably my favorite song because it is the song that is most relatable to classic rock in general. But overall the album is definitely a highlight of 2005 and should have not been missed. I still listen to it this day. See you on tour with Belle and Sebastian.

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