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Commontime Image
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the fifth full-length studio release from the indie brother duo of Peter and David Brewis.
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Disappointed
this has been going on too long I can't believe it I made mistakes at the start and it seems you can't forgive them I see the two of us and I see us... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Jan 29, 2016
    100
    By the time The Morning Is Waiting appears, all glorious awakenings in pianos and strings, the album begins to feel triumphant. The elation continues to the end, with the funk returning in spades for Same Name, before closer Stay Awake warms you up to start over.
  2. Uncut
    Jan 29, 2016
    80
    The idiosyncratic chamber-pop o these 14 songs evokes The Kinks, XTC and the more melancholy side of Hot Chip; like much of their past work, it's musically intricate, too. [Mar 2016, p.73]
  3. Feb 2, 2016
    80
    Essentially, Commontime is business as usual for Field Music. If anything the mood is distinctly upbeat this time.
  4. 80
    Commontime is full of engaging ideas and genial character, by some distance the most assured and complete of Field Music’s releases.
  5. 80
    This is the band’s sixth album in an 11-year career and it feels at once fresh and self-assured, bearing its painstaking complexity with a striking nonchalance.
  6. Feb 16, 2016
    75
    There may be simple logic behind the phrase quality over quantity yet here there is clear cohesion and thought.
  7. Jan 29, 2016
    40
    Over 14 tracks, repetitive funk riffs and chatty, conversationalist lyrics start to wear a little thin, and a lack of diversity makes for such comfortable listening that you risk all-too-comfortably tuning out.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Feb 12, 2016
    6
    Commontime is a difficult album to review because I did generally enjoy all of the songs on the record. I enjoyed some songs quite a bit,Commontime is a difficult album to review because I did generally enjoy all of the songs on the record. I enjoyed some songs quite a bit, actually. Field Music's progressive pop sound and influences ranging from Steely Dan to Prince to the Shins made for an eclectic, energetic listen. However, the album clocks in at 57 minutes. Most tracks here sound very similar, making this record about 20 solid minutes or 6/7 solid songs too long. I don't want to be bored by it, but it is too formulaic to be consistently engaging. Field Music show a lot of potential on this record, but it doesn't quite do it for me.

    60/100
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