• Record Label: Anti
  • Release Date: Feb 8, 2005
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 17
  2. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Burn the Maps is an elemental journey that tugs at the heart and sticks around in the mind.
  2. Burn the Maps often sounds like simplicity transformed into bloat in an attempt to sound interesting.
  3. While nearly any song on Burn the Maps works effectively, the album as a whole can't quite maintain its momentum with such structural repetition.
  4. Mojo
    80
    An overwhelming record that bends and blusters with grand passions, bittersweet beauty and no small hint of desperation. [Apr 2005, p.98]
  5. Under The Radar
    60
    When it's good, it's great.... However, when it's bad, it borders on boring. [#9]
  6. Some of these exercises in frustration are simply frustrating, but for the most part, The Frames' perverse restraint matches Hansard's lyrics, which are all about lowered expectations.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    58
    These Irishmen have a way of merging lush Celtic melancholy with inspired Morse-code guitar noise... Alas, they also have a way with misogyny. [4 Feb 2005, p.135]
  8. Alternative Press
    60
    Burn The Maps' muted vibe demands that you turn down the lights, fire up the candles and listen hard. [Mar 2005, p.132]
  9. Magnet
    40
    Once a means to subvert pop/rock formula, the band's abruptly shifting dynamics have themselves become formulaic. [#67, p.97]
  10. It's an intensely private album, full of desolation, leave-takings, recriminations and regrets. [21 Feb 2005]
  11. Jaysus lads, get out the oven mitts – this one smokes.
  12. Blender
    70
    Maps... swap[s] the band's trademark dreariness for the U2-style arena-rock sweep that makes their live shows... so exciting. [Mar 2005, p.140]
  13. Far and away the group's most determined work of its 15-year career.
  14. The album moves in gasps and groans, with a steady flow to its twelve songs that weaves together like a symphony.
  15. Unabashedly mellow and reflective, Burn the Maps may not hook mainstream music fans who've been conditioned to expect a tidily rhyming chorus ever thirty seconds.
  16. It’s an unpredictably bipolar record with plenty of mood swings and emotional shifts that will ultimately leave listeners with feelings of euphoria.
  17. Planet
    80
    Meticulous recording, layered songwriting, and a little bit of "special effects" turns a bunch of good songs into a great album. [#9, p.70]
User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 31 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 31
  2. Negative: 3 out of 31
  1. Jan 4, 2012
    7
    As an album not bad, but as a follow up to For The Birds very disappointing. It does have some great moments but too many weak ones, somethingAs an album not bad, but as a follow up to For The Birds very disappointing. It does have some great moments but too many weak ones, something that could never have been said of the bands previous 3 albums Full Review »
  2. KathleenM.
    Jan 23, 2008
    9
    Excellent, damn near 10.
  3. Hein
    May 3, 2006
    10
    Very Good!