> Switch to Advanced Search

New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

64 A Camp
78 Akron/Family
73 Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
74 Amazing Baby
62 Tori Amos
54 The Answer
74 Anti-Flag
74 Art Brut
71 Au Revoir Simone
65 Zee Avi
70 Bachelorette
77 Bat For Lashes
68 Big Business
76 Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
67 Black Dice
57 Black Eyed Peas
74 Black Moth Super Rainbow
71 Blank Dogs
65 Booker T.
54 The Boxmasters
65 The Boy Least Likely To
74 Brakes [aka brakesbrakesbrakes]
68 British Sea Power
66 Jeff Buckley
75 Busdriver
59 Busta Rhymes
64 Cage The Elephant
82 Bill Callahan
80 Camera Obscura
68 Cam'ron
79 Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
58 Chester French
82 The Church
61 Ciara
72 Clues
69 The Coathangers
74 Jarvis Cocker
90 Leonard Cohen
70 Elvis Costello
66 Graham Coxon
76 Crippled Black Phoenix
71 The Crocodiles
69 Cryptacize
71 Crystal Antlers
56 The Crystal Method
69 Dananananaykroyd
76 Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse
71 De La Soul
77 Death Cab For Cutie
68 Deer Tick
81 Deerhunter
70 Depeche Mode
78 Dinosaur Jr.
85 Dirty Projectors
86 DJ Quik & Kurupt
77 Doves
68 Dredg
76 Bob Dylan
82 Steve Earle
70 Eels
62 El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez
58 Eminem
60 Empire Of The Sun
54 The Enemy
67 Jeremy Enigk
68 Nathan Fake
85 The Felice Brothers
79 The Field
65 Fink
60 Fischerspooner
77 Flatlanders
62 Flo Rida
64 Franz Ferdinand
77 Gallows
72 Melody Gardot
59 Ginuwine
71 Golden Silvers
61 Gomez
69 Grand Duchy
73 Great Lake Swimmers
59 Great Northern
72 Green Day
86 Grizzly Bear
75 The Handsome Family
69 Ben Harper And Relentless7
75 PJ Harvey & John Parish
66 Heaven & Hell
85 Levon Helm
74 The Hold Steady
79 Patterson Hood
75 Jon Hopkins
82 The Horrors
69 Hanne Hukkelberg
74 Ida Maria
65 Immaculate Machine
75 The Intelligence
76 Iron & Wine
79 Isis
68 It Hugs Back
88 J Dilla aka Jay Dee
61 Jadakiss
86 Japandroids
61 Joan Of Arc
84 Joe Lovano Us Five
72 John Doe & The Sadies
70 Joker's Daughter
62 Jonas Brothers
53 Mike Jones
71 The Juan Maclean
76 Junior Boys
68 Kasabian
74 Diana Krall
56 Lady Sovereign
43 Ben Lee
68 The Lemonheads
76 Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
77 Lindstrom & Prins Thomas
65 Little Boots
79 The Low Anthem
67 Jason Lytle
75 The Maccabees
76 Magik Markers
80 Major Lazer
70 Malajube
71 Manchester Orchestra
85 Manic Street Preachers
57 Marilyn Manson
66 The Mars Volta
68 Dave Matthews Band
62 Maximo Park
70 Meat Puppets
80 Method Man & Redman
77 Metric
75 Micachu & The Shapes
69 Chrisette Michele
76 Miike Snow
67 Mika Miko
75 Rhett Miller
49 Mims
72 Mr. Lif
72 Moby
78 Moderat
70 Mandy Moore
80 Mos Def
70 Bob Mould
74 Nadja
72 New York Dolls
72 Nite Jewel
67 NOFX
76 Noisettes
60 Paolo Nutini
67 Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band
74 Papercuts
76 Passion Pit
74 Peaches
71 Pet Shop Boys
68 Peter Bjorn And John
82 Phoenix
76 Pink Mountaintops
63 Placebo
66 Pomegranates
64 Iggy Pop
67 Prefuse 73
81 Ramblin' Jack Elliott
76 Rancid
54 Rascal Flatts
68 Lionel Richie
77 Alasdair Roberts
73 Rick Ross
55 Asher Roth
72 Savath & Savalas
61 Polly Scattergood
65 The Shortwave Set
60 Shout Out Out Out Out
66 Silversun Pickups
85 Todd Snider
78 Sonic Youth
72 The Soundcarriers
61 The Sounds
74 Regina Spektor
63 Spinal Tap
65 Spinnerette
81 St. Vincent
59 Still Flyin'
58 Street Sweeper Social Club
87 Sunn O)))
82 Sunset Rubdown
84 Super Furry Animals
74 Richard Swift
78 Taking Back Sunday
85 Tanya Morgan
81 Otis Taylor
71 Telekinesis
70 Telepathe
80 Thee Oh Sees
79 The Thermals
74 Rob Thomas
64 Thunderheist
74 Tiga
57 Tinted Windows
72 Tortoise
82 Allen Toussaint
71 Trembling Bells
69 Two Fingers
84 UGK
68 Keith Urban
71 John Vanderslice
85 The Vaselines
74 The Veils
73 Viva Voce
63 Patrick Watson
79 White Denim
77 White Rabbits
57 The Whitest Boy Alive
74 Wilco
80 Wildbirds & Peacedrums
78 Wolves In The Throne Room
65 The Wooden Birds
67 Wooden Shjips
81 Yeah Yeah Yeahs
70 Pete Yorn
93 Neil Young
60 Neil Young
72 Yusuf

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Ten Silver Drops
by Secret Machines


7.3

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

This is the sophomore set from the Texas-founded (and now New York-based) band known for its epic, proggy, psychedelic sound.

LABEL:	Reprise
RELEASE DATE:	25 April 2006
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

NOTES: UK release: 3 Apr 2006.

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

The Guardian

These are beautiful songs, as delicate as they are rocking and heavy.

Entertainment Weekly

The result is a spiritual sibling to such previous great, emotionally raw ruminations on shattered personal lives as Phil Collins' Face Value and Beck's Sea Change.

Urb

An ass-kicking sophomore effort. [Mar 2006, p.111]

Alternative Press

[A] thrilling trip to the sold-out stadiums of inner space. [Jun 2006, p.190]

Q Magazine

[Secret Machines] have pruned back the vast sonic expanses of 2004's full-length debut album, focusing instead on brevity and melody. [Apr 2006, p.120]

PopMatters

Ten Silver Drops is a record made for being played at extreme volumes.

Under The Radar

A surprisingly strong and confident record. [#13, p.88]

Uncut

If there's any justice, the stadiums of tomorrow await them. [Apr 2006, p.105]

Prefix Magazine

Where Now Here Is Nowhere was equally about force and restraint but always in separate parts, Ten Silver Drops does well to blend the two.

Dot Music

It is a qualified success, at times brilliant, at others rather vague and off target.

Mojo

There are some beautiful moments. [Apr 2006, p.94]

Los Angeles Times

This is a continuation, not a breakthrough. [23 Apr 2006]

New Musical Express

Yes, the Secret Machines do prog, but vitally they do so much more.

Amazon.com

Each [song] is epic (and not in the bad Creed "arms-spread-on-the-mountaintop" way): packing in more drama, billowing guitar solos and stealth pop hooks than the Strokes' entire back catalog.

Rolling Stone

The Machines' laser-light-show-ready atmospherics don't entirely compensate for the lack of a single as catchy as their last album's "Nowhere Again."

Pitchfork

Lacking the dynamic cohesion that made its predecessor more than the sum of its tracklist, it feels like merely a collection of random tracks, which, despite their common themes, begin to sound haphazard in their arrangements and sequencing.

Blender

The results can sometimes get bland; unlike its predecessor, which was moody and aimless, Drops is so polished that there are no ragged edges left to hang on to. [May 2006, p.109]

Observer Music Monthly

Although they are more focused on Ten Silver Drops, they also sound more reined-in and less idiosyncratic.

cokemachineglow

The Secret Machines are still super tight, Josh Garza’s still got restrained guitar awe on his side, every song’s arrangement is still an ebb and re-ebb of soaking synth and organ drone, and the lyrics still battle with neo-adult ennui. Is it any wonder, then, that there comes a time when this can just get dull?

All Music Guide

Secret Machines now sound uncannily like a fusion of U2 and INXS.

Stylus Magazine

While it's admirable that The Secret Machines are trying to solidify their niche as the go-to guys for soundtracking laser light shows (or at least My Morning Jacket for indoor kids), Ten Silver Drops is a sideways moonwalk that won't get them any further away from the planetarium circuit.

Paste Magazine

Its ideas tend to outnumber its hooks. [Apr/May 2006, p.102]

Delusions of Adequacy

These songs are painfully uneventful.

The average user rating for this album is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Richard H gave it a6:
What a letdown. I loved Now Here is Nowhere and thought that the Secret Machines were poised for big things, but this album left me scratching my head. The best parts of the original album were the throbbing rhythms. Sadly, this new disk is mixed so that the drums are almost an afterthought. The only song that captured the sound that I dug in the past album was "Daddy's in the Doldrums" which was a pretty good listen, but none of the other songs jumped out at me. I'm going to give this CD some time to change my mind, but so far I'm disappointed at the step back that this band has apparently taken.

Leyla H gave it a1:
I heard these guys at the Austin City Limits Festival and they ROCKED! I went and bought this album and it SUCKED! Either they are only good live or maybe like Mark H said, they were playing thier old stuff at that show I saw. I was truly dissapointed with 10 drops. It was alot lot of "guy whineing" in my opinion.

Marc H gave it a4:
This album is terrible compared to their last. They went from hard hitting, spacey rock to BORING in one album. Such a disappointment.

Jack gave it a9:
Another great album, just as good as the first. Gets better with every listen

Jim D gave it an8:
Listen to this when drunk and down. Too many reviewers are clearly living happy lives, as they fail to see the point of this album. The "My Bloody Valentine" influences are pretty cool.

san gave it a10:
This is MUSIC

James R gave it a9:
One of the best albums of the year so far.

Ten Silver Drops by Secret Machines

Ten Silver Drops
by Secret Machines