- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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SelectWill quite necessarily go Top Five in any sensible end-of-year poll. [July 2000, p.102]
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Entertainment WeeklyHolmes races through genres like a mad cab driver running red lights, revving up a jittery, urban fever dream from a junk heap of beats and ragged exotica. [10/27/2000, p.120]
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Featuring vocal contributions from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, punk-blues aficionado Jon Spencer and ex-Tricky collaborator Martina Toppley-Bird, Bow Down to the Exit Sign is a dark, soul-wrenching trip through an even darker world.
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A vast improvement over the intriguing but rarely focused Let's Get Killed, David Holmes' third solo album benefits from his growing status as a producer to watch -- and specifically, from his ability to snag the talents of big-name vocalists.
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MagnetOne of 2000's most consistently compelling listens. [#48, p.95]
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Similar in spirit to [Primal Scream's] Exterminator or Death In Vegas's The Contino Sessions, his third album tools up a live rock band with dance music's sonic armoury... it's a claustrophobic listening experience, challengingly thick with ideas.
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SpinHolmes' Bow Down breaks from the elegant flow-noir of his previous platters by spinning luridly out of control. [12/2000, p.220]
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With this ramshackle spread of spiked beats and filthy-fingered funk he's produced easily his best work.... An intoxicating, headstorming brew of desire and despair 'Bow Down To The Exit Sign' is the first great album of the millennium.
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Equally comfortable in the realms of rock and dance, Holmes is hard to pin down stylistically; his latest album, Bow Down to the Exit Sign, like Moby's 1999 Play, draws from classic blues to add new life to electronic music.
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RevolutionDavid Holmes' boldest effort to date, exploring the threads that bind avant garde rock, squelchy electronics, and film together.... A milestone for David Holmes, and an amazing collage of music-meats-cinema that endears itself with each listen. [Oct 2000, p.111]
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Alternative PressBow Down... was developed alongside a movie script and works as vivid NYC filmic music and an electic-by-default modern concept album. [12/2000, p.96]
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UrbAn album that blends genres and forms to spawn a rare breed of funky breakbeat-inspired rock.... Unfortunately, the vocal collaborations with the likes of Jon Spencer, Bobby Gillespie, and Martina Topley-Bird are a bit ill-fitting and disappointing. [#79, p.124]
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Although it's a huge departure for those expecting more of the same from Holmes, it's easily the most sonically interesting release by him thus far.
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And while Holmes can't be faulted for applying cut-and-paste to mood and drama as well as sounds and beats, his tracks' lack of freshness still adds up to an ambitious letdown.
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Like Death in Vegas, Holmes is a techno boffin whose work builds upon that of the Velvet Underground rather than Kraftwerk; too bad his grooves, like the bass-line chug of "Living Room," often go nowhere fast.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 1 out of 6
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TomMDec 8, 2002This album really rules!!