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

musicOMH.com

Lookout Sea paradoxically Silver Jews' most complex and most accessible work to date. Better yet, it improves with each listen, as more and more nuances and links are revealed.

Read Full Review >

100

Slant Magazine

It is no small feat to write melodies as memorable as Berman's exceedingly quotable lyrics, but on each song here, he does. Lookout Mountain is an outstanding work of art.

Read Full Review >

Filter

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is the most assured and poignant album since the band's third, "American Water." [Spring 2008, p.97]

Hot Press

Erudite, Whiskey-Soaked, alt countryish maverick just keeps getting better.

Read Full Review >

Uncut

However unappetizing it may first appear, this is grimly funny food for thought.

Read Full Review >

Dusted Magazine

Lookout lacks the piercing insight of Berman’s best work––those Old Testament and American Gothic retellings laced with sarcasm and self-loathing. At the same time, there’s a casual quality to this set that trumps the belabored tangle of the last go-round.

Read Full Review >

The Guardian

But everyone involved--Berman, his wife Cassie on bass, various Lambchop alumni--evidently delights in each song's peculiarities, and their pleasure can't help but suffuse the listener, too.

Read Full Review >

Alternative Press

If alt-country were truly alternative, it might sound more like Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, especially on 'What Is Not But Could Be If,' where Silver Jews leader David Berman's booming vocals run as deep as anything this side of Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen in their prime. [July 2008, p.151]

Tiny Mix Tapes

As always, Berman and the Silver Jews work best in their classically sharp, witty song stylings and deftly produced Americana constructions. And most of the songs here exhibit just that.

Read Full Review >

Mojo

Clean, reverbed electric guitar chime and twang gorgeously and the production is simple and simpatico, but it's Berman's strange yet archetypal-sounding tales of gulible skinsmen and prisons built from sweets that keep you coming back for more. [July 2008, p.108]

All Music Guide

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea reveals more poetic, as well as playful, layers with each listen--and above all, underscores what an inviting songwriter Berman is, whether he's taking a darker or lighter approach.

Read Full Review >

Drowned In Sound

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is the logical next chapter in this manuscript which has had many of us hooked since the opening lines.

Read Full Review >

Paste Magazine

As a vehicle for Berman’s words, just as much as a follow-up to his 1999 poetry collection "Actual Air" would be, Lookout Mountain is a volume to be consumed in one’s own time, filed on the shelf, and eventually taught in seminars as an example of form and poise.

Read Full Review >

Spin

Musically, his sixth Silver Jews album is a low-key treat, country-inflected folk rock goosed by melodies that conjure both the Velvet Underground ("Open Field") and Johnny Cash ("Candy Jail").

Read Full Review >

Under The Radar

While his deadpanned wit is ever the disarming device on the band’s sixth album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, it’s balanced with a decidedly sober appraisal of life’s monumental hardships and meager redemptions. [Summer 2008]

NOW Magazine

If this isn’t the band’s best yet, it’s still damn good.

Read Full Review >

cokemachineglow

Lookout doesn’t have the feel of a major step forward for the Silver Jews: sonically, it falls pretty comfortably between "Bright Flight" and "Tanglewood" and doesn’t have the sort of big events that marked those two records.

Read Full Review >

Prefix Magazine

There’s not much here that will elevate the band beyond their current status. Bermanites will still revel in his idiosyncratic lyrics, and they can even play along thanks to an insert that lists all the chords used on the record.

Read Full Review >

The Phoenix

Although the record is on the slight side--there’s simply no replacing the inexorable, existential pushing forward of 'Dallas' or 'Smith & Jones Forever'--Berman still has a knack for catching you off guard with moments of strange beauty.

Read Full Review >

Delusions of Adequacy

Taken as a whole, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea stills far short of the Silver Jews’ seminal statements--namely 1998’s "American Water" and 1994’s "Starlite Walker"--but its mix of mischief and melancholy provides more than enough to keep David Berman in the game he continues to reassuringly and unpredictably play on his own terms.

Read Full Review >

Hartford Courant

He delivers everything that makes Silver Jews records great, but he's fallen victim to his own past successes: the peaks and valleys that made "Tanglewood Numbers" such a dizzying listen have been smoothed down and filled in, leaving the faithful with an album that is merely good.

Read Full Review >

Billboard

A warm, enjoyable effort, but perhaps short on the Jews' best asset: Berman himself.

Read Full Review >

The Onion (A.V. Club)

He hasn't lost the sardonic smarts, but there's a sense of lightness--the playful, country-ish rock is more playful and country-ish--that by its nature removes some of the gravity and graveness of his songs.

Read Full Review >

Pitchfork

I prefer to think of Lookout Mountain as an album of pretty-good songs from a guy who has written some unbelievably great ones, and will, more than likely, write some more of that quality down the road.

Read Full Review >

PopMatters

On an album so brief, these less effective songs take up an awful lot of space, making for a record that is fun throughout, but still awfully uneven. Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is hit and miss, but its missteps come as a result of admirable risks.

Read Full Review >

Blender

At his best, Berman used to refract sage-with-guitar tropes into dryly perverse insights; but this time he's just smothering them in weird phrases. [July 2008, p.76]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

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

Nicholas C gave it a9:
One of the best Silver Jews albums easily. Outstanding lyrics all around, hardly a skippable track to be found. Big improvement on Tanglewood Numbers. Carrie's singing is better than ever and doesn't feel forced on any of the tracks. Highly recommended.

Music

Upcoming &Recent Releases

Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

Album Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

Upcoming &
Recent Releases