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Bow Down To The Exit Sign Image
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

  • Summary: Former British club DJ David Holmes has been building a name for himself as a composer of soundtracks both real (Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight") and imaginary (the previous Holmes albums 'Let's Get Killed' and 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash The Seats). 'Bow Down' continues that traditionFormer British club DJ David Holmes has been building a name for himself as a composer of soundtracks both real (Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight") and imaginary (the previous Holmes albums 'Let's Get Killed' and 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash The Seats). 'Bow Down' continues that tradition by forming the soundtrack to an as-yet-unproduced screenplay, although it is clearly more song-oriented than its predecessors. Jon Spencer, Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), and Martina Topley-Bird (best known for her work on Tricky's albums) are among the guest vocalists. Collapse
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Select
    100
    Will quite necessarily go Top Five in any sensible end-of-year poll. [July 2000, p.102]
  2. 100
    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.
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    100
    Holmes 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]
  4. Revolution
    80
    David 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]
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. TomM
    Dec 8, 2002
    10
    This album really rules!!