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Cannibal Sea
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Cannibal Sea Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the third album of 60s-influenced tunes from the Brooklyn-based indie-pop band.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. AllMusic
    90
    Cannibal Sea is the equal of anything the Ladybug Transistor have released (which is saying a whole lot), and is better than just about any indie pop or rock circa 2006.
  2. Neumu.net
    90
    Cannibal Sea is startlingly immediate.
  3. Uncut
    80
    It's clear The Essex Green have joined The New Pornographers and The Shins among indie-pop's most insinuating and accomplished bands. [Jun 2006, p.100]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. Pitchfork
    72
    The difference, as between fellow Merge band the Rosebuds' debut and sophomore albums, is a greater engagement with the prevailing indiepop aesthetic rather than long-dead flower-cliché epochs, though without quite the songwriting chops of Bell and guitarist Jeff Baron's other band, Ladybug Transistor.
  5. Prefix Magazine
    70
    Cannibal Sea's saccharine pop flirts at times with levels likely to cause diabetic seizures in the biggest Cardigans and Komeda fans, but the band does a good job of maintaining the album's balance.
  6. cokemachineglow
    66
    When they’re trying, as they do especially on the first half of the album, Cannibal Sea can be quite enjoyable.
  7. Slant Magazine
    60
    Cannibal Sea is a mellow concoction well-suited to fans of cerebral indie pop.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. colint
    Apr 27, 2006
    10
    This is a pop masterpiece that glides effortlessly between folk, roots and indie rock. Sasha has a classic sixties vocal, and with lyrics This is a pop masterpiece that glides effortlessly between folk, roots and indie rock. Sasha has a classic sixties vocal, and with lyrics like "Do you like my dress? It's from '74. Ripped from the girl who wore it before." you can see that she takes pride in her golden era inspirations. While there is a sixties style to the songs, they should only be compared in the sense that the decade's songs were timeless, as is Cannibal Sea. This is an album for the springtime, for a journeyman, for a sailer, for the city, and for the country too. So so sad that the US has glossed over Essex Green because they deserve to be heard. LOVED IT!!!… Expand
  2. TheBigCrunch
    Apr 29, 2006
    9
    A nearly flawless piece of sunny and sophisticated pop. Of the fifty to sixty albums I've heard that have been released in 2006, this is A nearly flawless piece of sunny and sophisticated pop. Of the fifty to sixty albums I've heard that have been released in 2006, this is easily in my top five. Critics who have dismissed Cannibal Sea for simply being a reappropriation of previously used pop tropes have completely missed the point. Pop/rock endlessly recycles itself, and pure originality is extremely rare, and frequently results in some fairly awful music. When judging a a straight ahead pop album like this (or the new Belle and Sebastian, or Gulliemotts, Elbow, etc...) the measure should be on how originally and effectively the band has reappropriated the core elements inherent in almost all pop/rock. In that regard, this album is something of a mini-masterpiece of sunny, breezy, excellently written guitar/bass/drums/synth pop music. If a better "summer" albums is released this year, I'll be shocked.… Collapse
  4. mikeys
    May 5, 2006
    9
    An excellent cd to get for summer, I love it!
  5. time
    Mar 10, 2007
    7
    They have good songs but they can't even be spoken in the same sentence as Camera Obscura. In fact their more Incubus than anything. Of They have good songs but they can't even be spoken in the same sentence as Camera Obscura. In fact their more Incubus than anything. Of course they're better than Pavement. Listening to actual Pavement being demolished by construction workers is better than listening to Pavement.… Expand