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All Music Guide

With Don't Do Anything, Sam Phillips has struck out on her own with a work that's among her most challenging to date, and it reveals that she's held on to the gifts that have made her one of the most rewarding singer/songwriters of her generation while adding fresh accents as she follows her muse with commendable courage and clarity.

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Boston Globe

Anyone who rues the scarcity of smart, serious pop music for grown-ups should snap up the entire Sam Phillips catalog. On second thought, skip "Omnipop." But don't miss Phillips's splendid new effort, Don't Do Anything, a collection that dances in her signature mystery space between darkness and light with strange grace, emotional candor, and winsome hooks.

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Paste Magazine

On Don’t Do Anything, she succeeds beautifully by doing nothing more than being the best possible version of herself.

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PopMatters

Phillips realizes that music, like life, is found in the flaws. She creates sonic sandcastles with strings and percussion and croons above it, but her inner eye is open and sees the waves crashing to the shore.

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Trouser Press

Brimming with confidence and good humor, Don’t Do Anything is another high point in a career that threatens to become overstuffed with them.

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Q Magazine

Always an intriguing lyricist, her divorce from producer T. Bone Burnett seems to have added a bittersweet dimension to her words too. [Oct 2008, p.150]

Hot Press

Phillips’ vocal style is of the quietly devastated Erin Moran/Aimee Mann school, backlit by Bacharach-and-Wilson-ish arrangements on ‘Another Song’, ‘Little Plastic Life’ and ‘Flower Up’.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes

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

James B. gave it an8:
I'm very happy to see/hear the return of one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters. "Don't Do Anything" is an excellent collection of intelligent and melodic pop tunes. And I feel it's a slight improvement on "A Boot and a Shoe". That's not to say I "disliked" Sam's previous album, only that her new release is more consistent. Aside from a couple tracks that too easily recall "A Boot and a Shoe", Sam's new album refreshingly features a fair amount of actual "electric guitar", especially on the superb "My Career in Chemistry" (one of the most original and "rockiest" tunes in her catalogue). Other standouts include: "Flowers Up", "Under the Night", "Signal", "Another Song" and the title track. All in all, this is one of my favorite albums so far in 2008.

Jesse S. gave it an8:
Reliably ingenious, but could use some more weirdness.

Jill L. gave it a10:
I have not stopped listening to this CD since I received the downloads from Nonesuch, and was also blessed to meet Sam in S.F. at Borders and hear her sing these songs. Her music affects me more deeply than any other music I have ever heard, and it stays with me as feelings of hope and unending possibilities. She is a gift to us all.

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Don't Do Anything

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