- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Musically and lyrically, it continues right along in the same footsteps of their last album, and in the case of some tracks is even much better.
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BlenderTranscends their last album with lean hooks that trade urban melancholy for a surprisingly pastoral warmth. [#11, p.136]
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Nothing about the five originals and two covers here makes them come across like B-sides or throwaways.
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MagnetOffers little bits of everything Luna does well. [#57, p.93]
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As leftovers, Close Cover Before Striking is more akin to day-old pizza than three-week-old pasta.
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A solid and passably interesting piece of work by a band that long ago learned its niche.
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Q MagazineFeatures typically fragile thumbnail sketches like New Haven Comet. [Feb 2003, p.105]
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The short album feels fully realized -- immediate and raw all at once -- just as rock ought to be.
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Six of the seven songs are understated, melodic mid-tempo pieces.... The song that breaks the mold is also the album's best moment[:]"Astronaut."
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The best of these seven songs is a Stones cover, only not by as much as you first think, and the second-best is the opener ["Astronaut"], ditto.