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Oct 3, 2011Though these variations are often enjoyable, particularly on an individual track level, taken as a whole they're just too slight, making Civilian difficult to fully engage with.
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MojoMay 18, 2011Civilian [is] coming on like an odd, but most welcome hybrid. [Jun 2011, p.106]
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Q MagazineApr 22, 2011There is plenty here to treasure here. [Apr 2011, p.111]
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UncutApr 7, 2011Baltimore multi-instrumental duo Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack have raised their game with this third LP. [Apr 2011, p.103]
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Mar 31, 2011Here's one of the few first-quarter releases of 2011 that people will still be listening to in 2012.
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Mar 24, 2011Wye Oak should be highly commended for expanding their already strong sound. Let's just hope they leave in a tad more of their younger selves next time around.
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Mar 22, 2011Maybe the way the album begins isn't supposed to put its 10 songs into the context of a live show, but certainly it ends the way you'd presume a Wye Oak show to close down: reflectively, with the audience's appreciation at first silent in captivation. Then, though it might not be audible on Civilian, well-deserved applause.
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Mar 21, 2011If Wasner has some demons to exorcise, let's selfishly hope she never quite gets at 'em.
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Mar 17, 2011In Civilian, quiet despair sounds like anything but.
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Mar 11, 2011They create their own sonic world, one you may want join yourself once you dig into its layers.
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Mar 11, 2011Civilian opens with the sound of ambient chatter, a room full of voices quickly washed away by steeled guitar and electronics. It's a shift at odds with the polar dynamics this Baltimore-based duo has sworn by in its half-decade career.
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Mar 11, 2011The added dynamism in Wye Oak's music makes the prettiest passages of Civilian that much more arresting, and the demons lurking beneath them all the more real.
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Alternative PressMar 11, 2011It's impressively well-wrought music, though no longer as instantly engaging, requiring several listens before its charms truly take shape. [Apr 2011, p.122]
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Mar 10, 2011Civilian pushes Wye Oak to the head of the nu-shoegaze pack with a record as blissed out as it is maudlin, as rootsy and tough as it is fey and introspective.
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Mar 10, 2011Even as it limits the album's appeal as much as it does the band's chances of broader success, Wye Oak's stylistic purity is a virtue in itself.
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Mar 8, 2011Be it through incremental shifts and changes or grinding genres together to hear what comes out, Wye Oak know their influences in and out and work skillfully to blend them or highlight their differences as the song calls for it.
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Mar 7, 2011Civilian has just enough personality to stop it being completely pedestrian.
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Mar 7, 2011On Civilian, the band shows that it can be serious without being overbearing, evocative without being histrionic, and accessible without being derivative.
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Mar 7, 2011Though made by only two people, Civilian never feels less than fully realized.
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Mar 7, 2011It's rare that a band gets better after releasing a few albums; usually their initial inspiration gets used up and they are left foundering. Wye Oak have done it, and on Civilian, they insert themselves into the upper echelon of indie rock bands.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 21 out of 22
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Mixed: 1 out of 22
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Negative: 0 out of 22
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Jul 26, 2011
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Oct 9, 2022
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Apr 4, 2011