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Ink Blot Magazine

It is a strange album for Sunny Day in that it lingers in an abstract realm that the band previously only hinted at.... album is SDRE's most mature work to date. It is so musically dense and complex.

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Magnet

It's as if SDRE was trying to make every album it thought Rush should have cut after Moving Pictures - simultaneously dark, textural, riff-based and cliche-free, yet filled with the sort of sweeping gestures and lofty arrangements you usually find in vintage prog.

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All Music Guide

It's some of the band's fullest-sounding work, rich with strings and keyboard flourishes... The Rising Tide is one of Sunny Day Real Estate's -- and 2000's -- most impressive albums.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Another remarkable, evolutionary chapter in the stormy history of one of rock's best young bands.

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Wall of Sound

The band is beguilingly hypnotic, making music that is decidedly off-kilter. Guitars swirl, grind, and mesh with fluid rhythms and haunting melodies.

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Sonicnet

On this latest offering there's hardly any indication that the band was ever the product of post-grunge Seattle.... But this refined sound is also where The Rising Tide starts to sink.

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Spin

But it's like the guitars have had their teeth fixed and bleached, like a extremely loud Colgate commercial.

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MTV.com

The slick strings and piano emphasized later in the album aren't as moving as the cascading guitar and Enigk's vulnerable-boy vanity.

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Rolling Stone

The grandiose production, by Lou Giordano (Goo Goo Dolls, Live), matches the quasi-mystical visions mapped out in the songs....

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Nude As The News

SDRE has always flirted with prog-rock machinations, but some of these songs are just too over the top to be written off as experiments in musical nostalgia.

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Pitchfork

So, essentially, this is the pop record '70s prog bands would make in the '80s-- Big Generator and Power Windows for a new generation. Aside from two major blunders nothing is overtly offensive, but simply lachrymose and lactose.

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Billboard

There's an odd allegiance to the overblown prog-rock theatrics of Rush... and Yes... that seems incongruous alongside earnest Beatles homages... and straight-up, gloom-rock confessionals.

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CDNow

The album, as a whole, is not a washout; it just doesn't live up to the hype and expectations.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes

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

Wamiq C gave it a10:
There are actually a couple of weaker moments. But in large part this album is the shimmering realization of everything that makes this band so loved and so revered. Mature and musically complex, and Jeremy's voice has never been better utilized or produced.

Jonathan H gave it a7:
great songs that seem to miss the mark at some points, due to the production. the reason why this is so fascinating is because of the fact that it came from this band. not a blunder, but another chapter. this band has been moving sideways since it started, upwards when they re-united- and then sideways again... so they've actually been moving diaginal, which is the best way to move.

Ben A gave it a10:
Incredible. Best SDRE album ever. Detailed and Heart-felt. Get it now.

Grendel gave it a 9:
SDRE is a fantasic band. I had to make this album ("The Rising Tide") my first purchase because "Fool in the Photograph", "Faces in Disguise", and "Snibe" are some of my favorite songs. Any fan of SDRE should give this album a chance.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
gorgeous.

Francesco CL gave it an 8:
Facile (bastano tre o quattro ascolti per innamorarsene), tessuto, carico di idee (a volte, per questo, pesante), longevo, brillante.Tanti pezzi che resistono alla prova del tempo:"One","Rain Song","Disappear", "Snibe", "The ocean" "The fool in the photograph". Incredibilmente stupida la scelta di un apertura con "killed by an angel" pezzo scontato,di trito rock,di scarso appeal, che regolarmente salto. Un autogol che avrà determinato molti critici a bocciare l'album. Un bel disco, invece. Acquistatelo se vi piacciono i Foo Fighters.

aj d gave it a 10:
Wow.

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