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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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It's a Wonderful Life
by Sparklehorse
This is the third album for Mark Linkous and Sparklehorse.
| LABEL: |
EMI/Capitol |
| RELEASE DATE: |
28 August 2001 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Alternative, Rock |
NOTES: UK release 11 June 2001.
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...
91
Entertainment Weekly
This time, the music is even more haunted. The brittle keyboards and violins make for the sound of an Appalachian funeral. It's the O Brother, Where Art Thou? for the modern death-obsessed introvert.
90
CDNow
A reaffirming celebration of small details.
90
Magnet
It's a Wonderful Life raises the bar already set high by fellow post-modern woodsmen types like Grandaddy and Mercury Rev. [#51, p.116]
90
Mojo
This time Linkous lets his gift for fractured folk song to resonate without encumbrance from freaky noise slugs. The results are sensational. [Jul 2001, p.98]
80
Dot Music
Essentially, 'It's A Wonderful Life', is an equally brilliant and perhaps more cohesive album, mixing an arcane guitar, string and keyboard based atmospheric tilt, with more fast-action, barrelling moments.
80
New Musical Express
With this heavy payload of imagery, it's a miracle that Sparklehorse's third album of backwoods blues hasn't ended up a junk shop of Southern Gothic clichés. Old dog Tom Waits even wades in, hollering like an incestuous uncle on 'Dog Door', while Linkous' rusty cabin music creaks insalubriously beneath. But that's just the first of many wonders of this exceptional record.
80
Playlouder
Had 'It's A Wonderful Life' been recorded by anyone other than Sparklehorse, we could simply describe it as an amazing record before sitting back to bask in its splendour, but given everything that Mark Linkous has been through, that such a beautiful record not only exists but sounds so effortlessly graceful marks it out as a definite contender for album of the year.
80
Sonicnet
A lot of what distinguishes Wonderful Life is its fragility. At its best, the music feels as though it could blow apart at any moment.
80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Ironically, the consistency of It's A Wonderful Life's dreamy, narcotic tone tends to detract from the consistency of its quality, in large part because the first few tracks set the bar so high.
80
All Music Guide
It's a noticeably more focused effort. Though it lacks Good Morning Spider's sprawling brilliance, it's possibly Linkous' most effective, and affecting, collection of songs.
77
Pitchfork
The most focused Sparklehorse effort yet, the album flows along with the grace of a river occasionally stirred by a rapid or two.
70
Alternative Press
A lovely, delicate album marred only by a curious vocal idiosyncrasy... Linkous performs several of these songs in a near whisper... [Oct 2001, p.100]
70
Armchair DJ
These 13 dusky ditties almost always enchant.
70
Rolling Stone
Musing, eerie and oddly lovely, It's a Wonderful Life is almost minimalist - it captures fleeting moments in a few chords and peculiarly evocative phrases.
63
Spin Cycle
Ultimately, the record is kept from wonderfulness by too much drowsy material--it lacks [Neil] Young's screwball conviction or the hallucinogenic intensity of the VU.
60
Blender
Too often, songs drift off into a fog of vague guitar atmospherics. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.130]
60
Spin
It's a Wonderful Life comes off like a Magical Soft Mystery Bulletin. Yet, those iridescent orchestrations seem to be covering for the underdeveloped dirges that dominate the album. [Oct 2001, p.127]
The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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