- Record Label: Hardly Art
- Release Date: Sep 23, 2008
- Critic score
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Under The RadarAll in all it's a sort of indie rock comfort food for those who miss the way it used to sound. [Fall 2008, p.82]
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Barrett combines his best strengths to deliver one of the album’s few shining spots; it’s just a shame there aren’t more of them on here.
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Beating Back the Claws of the Cold aims for timelessness with its fusion of chamber pop, indie rock, and popular folk, but falls short as just another likable, ephemeral fall release.
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The more outside the box Barrett gets, the less enticing his songs become. When he sticks to more traditional pop songwriting and really concentrates on creative instrumentation and sonic palette within that framework, the album takes off.
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Beating Back the Claws of the Cold only offers fleeting glimpses of potential greatness beneath the ho-hum surface.
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The album’s an impressive document of Barrett’s talent, but I don’t hear the hooks that similar acts like Belle & Sebastian built their name on. Without them, The Pica Beats remain an also-ran.