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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
by Sparklehorse


8.0

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 22 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

It's a Wonderful Life

Mark Linkous' first Sparklehorse album in five years includes collaborations with Danger Mouse, Christian Fennesz, and Tom Waits.

LABEL:	Astralwerks
RELEASE DATE:	26 September 2006
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

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...

Entertainment Weekly

[A] simply dreamy album. [20 Oct 2006, p.83]

Los Angeles Times

You can file it alongside another notable album about finding light in the darkness, "Electro-Shock Blues" by Eels.

Filter

Back is the blend of lo-fi and hi-fi, and back are the completely odd lyrics. [#22, p.94]

Stylus Magazine

Unlike its Fridmann-produced predecessor Dreamt For Light Years employs a stripped-down approach more akin to its debut.

Pitchfork

Dreamt for Light Years proves less targeted than 2001's It's a Wonderful Life, but this is a check in the plus column: Linkous sounds best when he's warring with structure and sound, when his songs sound unsettled.

musicOMH.com

There are no earth-shattering changes to Linkous' studio-warped rock 'n' roll pastoralism. As there was nothing broken on previous Sparklehorse outings, there is little in need of fixing.

Mojo

Most of these 12 songs... fall within the wistful to enchanting range. [Oct 2006, p.96]

Playlouder

There simply aren't enough superlatives to describe the genius of his music.

The Guardian

A lush, hazy romp around the outskirts of alt.country that shimmers with wonky pop genius.

Urb

The album is a more straightforward, breezier Sparklehorse, and effortlessly replayable. [Oct 2006, p.130]

Q Magazine

Sparklehorse's resulting leap transports the group away from gloomy country to a modern psychedelia that achieves its creator's ambition of "making Kid A with choruses." [Oct 2006, p.120]

New Musical Express

Superb stuff. [23 Sep 2006, p.33]

Uncut

It's unmistakable, unsettling, classic Linkous. [Oct 2006, p.120]

Dusted Magazine

Ultimately, Dreamt will reward those who spend time with it, and Sparklehorse fans won't be disappointed.

Under The Radar

While Dreamt is, perhaps, the least of the four Sparklehorse albums, that certainly does not mean that it isn’t a veritable, solid album, that is better than, say, ninety -percent of most modern music. [#15]

All Music Guide

Peaceful and undeniably pretty, this is an album that should please many Sparklehorse fans, even if it doesn't challenge them the way Good Morning Spider and It's a Wonderful Life's best moments did.

Spin

The sound remains crisp, ensuring that its rough-hewn beauty shines through. [Oct 2006, p.104]

Prefix Magazine

Thematically and structurally, this record is Linkous comfortably being Linkous.

Dot Music

While passages are lovely, the work as a whole struggles to hold the attention.

NOW Magazine

Not terrible, just half-assed.

Rolling Stone

Seductive though Linkous' cushy, narcotic patter can be, his slower songs... feel like they're floating in an ocean of sleepiness.

PopMatters

What may get lost in all this effect and craft is that at their base, many of Linkous’ songs are remarkably standard rock-song constructions.

cokemachineglow

Inevitably, most of the studio design on each song is greedy and belabored. Everything is in its right place, but everything is too obvious or too proportionally gaudy to warrant more than a signatory “lo-fi” moniker.

Paste Magazine

Ornate but unremarkable headphone listening. [Oct 2006, p.80]

The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jake W gave it a10:
Sparklehorse is brilliant.

Kelly W gave it a9:
Great album, but we've had Shade and Honey, Morning Hollow, Ghost in the Sky and Maxime (aka Dreamt for light years....) for years now. WTF?!

mads l gave it a7:
My only problem with this latest effort from the very talented Mark Linkous, is the fact that no new ideas are brought to the fore despite the fact his last album was released half a decade ago! That is a mild criticism though when you get enraptured by a lovely tune like Shade and Honey anyway...

Rosie gave it an8:
Yes, yes, it's good, of course. But where's the innovation, where's the development from their previous work? As others have said, Dreamt is more akin to Vivadixie than either of the intermediary releases - there's a frustrating sense of regression about this. Some beautifully crafted songs (and that's rare enough anywhere), but it's just more of the same. A shame after so long an incubatory period.

J C gave it a10:
I think its there best album yet...

Alice R gave it an8:
Great music - it is only now that I can appreciate why there was such a long wait!

Guy H gave it an8:
'Dreamt...' ticks all the right Sparklehorse boxes - you have gentle beauty (Shade and Honey), acoustic simplicity (Return to Me), full throttle punk (Ghost), sparkly pop (...Sunshine) and a bit of a tearjerker (Morning Hollow). There is something missing though - the album doesn't seem to have a unique voice of its own like 'Goodmorningspider' or 'Wonderful Life' did. Its a bit more like 'Vivadixie...', some great songs that fit ok together to make a solid album. The one real exception is the final track, a lengthy instrumental mood piece that probably sounds like a dull idea on paper but actually works really well and gives this album something unique. Oh, and this is the first album not to mention Captain Howdy in a single song - what is the Sparklehorse world coming to?

Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain by Sparklehorse

Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
by Sparklehorse