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Blue Lights On The Runway
by
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Blue Lights On The Runway Image
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the Irish band's first album without Brian Crosby, who left to pursue other projects.

Top Track

The Great Defector
I am the defector And you’re the farmer’s daughter You been teasing us farm boys Till we start talkin’ about those rabbits, George Oh won’t... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Paste Magazine
    91
    Their new record Blue Lights On The Runway has the potential to turn X1 into a stateside #1.
  2. PopMatters
    80
    In short, Blue Lights on the Runway has it all.
  3. Billboard
    80
    The Irish quartet holds up its end with an album of melodically memorable and inventively arranged songs, most clocking in at more than five minutes and massaging listeners with a wash of keyboard and guitar textures.
  4. No Ripcord
    70
    Bell X1 has found an absorbing but unshaven sound, set apart by ease and experimentation and yet inevitably spoiled by them.
  5. Rolling Stone
    60
    Blue Lights is uneven, but the good songs are really good.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    58
    The rest of Blue Lights on the Runway is duller than 'The Great Defector;' most of it sounds like warmed-over Coldplay.
  7. Under The Radar
    40
    Blue Lights is more of an affective slow burn, which is to say it is often a bit of a bore. [Spring 2009, p.70]
    All this publication's reviews

See all 10 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. AnneC.
    Mar 16, 2009
    10
    Fantastic beautiful and FUN.
  2. GedC.
    Mar 5, 2009
    10
    This has it all! Great beats and great lyrics. Buy it!
  4. LiamG.
    Mar 6, 2009
    10
    Simply amazing!
  5. Ricko
    Nov 2, 2011
    8
    A great record. This marks a distinct change in style from the bands first 3 albums. They still have the beautifully gentle ballads mixed inA great record. This marks a distinct change in style from the bands first 3 albums. They still have the beautifully gentle ballads mixed in with some upbeat pop-rock tracks, they still have the quirky (albeit sometimes dubious) lyrics, but on this record they do push themselves in terms of the sounds they experiment with. This was the bands first independently released record and no longer under the control of a major label, you can hear the relief and freedom in the tracks.… Expand
  6. JT
    Apr 1, 2009
    7
    Genuinely enjoyable, but if "The Great Defector" is what drew you to the CD, not much else on the album sounds like it. At times the lyrics Genuinely enjoyable, but if "The Great Defector" is what drew you to the CD, not much else on the album sounds like it. At times the lyrics were odd enough to cross over from arty to just plain weird.… Expand

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