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- Summary: The second full-length album for the Canadian trio led by Elizabeth Powell was written while she was recovering from a hemorrhagic vocal polyp.
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- Record Label: Saddle Creek Records
- Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 14
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Mixed: 2 out of 14
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Negative: 0 out of 14
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Aside from some quirky song titles, there's little about Land of Talk that's abnormal. In the end, they're just solid all the way around.
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Cloak and Cipher is unpretentious in every respect, escalating their previous subtleties with furious, transcendent melancholic moments. While many Canadian bands find themselves teetering on the edge after much premature praise, it comes as a pleasant surprise that Land of Talk keep getting better.
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Ultimately, you sense Powell pushing, giving and breaking through.
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Alternative PressLovely and bewitching, Cipher unfolds like an elegantly written novel. [Sep 2010, p.112]
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Although largely interchangeable with its predecessors, Cloak and Cipher still sounds fresh enough to please Land of Talk loyalists, and engaging enough to showcase their appeal to new listeners as well.
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Those great choruses? Still great, but not when songs are dragged out this long and the payoff arrives right on schedule, about four times a song. It's indulgent, but it's hard to make songs sound this big. Fortunately, it won't be enough to wring-out the magic found in a great many of these songs, and surely won't be able to stall Land of Talk who, with Cloak and Cipher, are progressing quite nicely.
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With an all-star cast like this, it's not surprising that Cloak and Cipher is beautifully played and layered. However, too often it feels like the album's overall sound comes at the price of distinctive songs.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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Nov 29, 2010
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Nov 5, 2010
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