Courting the Squall
by Guy Garvey
  • Record Label: Polydor
  • Release Date: Oct 30, 2015
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
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  1. PopMatters
    Nov 5, 2015
    60
    Courting the Squall is a solid first solo outing for this music veteran, one that reveals an important truth: no matter how much experience you have making music, if you take the risk on something new, you’re going to find that there’s plenty still to learn, and even more to improve on.
  2. The Observer (UK)
    Nov 2, 2015
    60
    You can hear confirmation in the musical differences that divide Courting the Squall from one of the more experimental Elbow albums: minor detailing rather than schismatic shifts.
  3. DIY Magazine
    Oct 30, 2015
    60
    Courting The Squall touches and recaps on the ideas which Guy Garvey masters in his romanticisms and balladry, but gloriously glimpses his experimental and playful side.
  5. The Guardian
    Oct 29, 2015
    60
    How much you value such gently experimental foraging over Elbow’s typically rousing melodies might determine your enjoyment of this: it certainly leans towards the former.
  6. New Musical Express (NME)
    Oct 27, 2015
    60
    Guy Garvey’s solo debut follows the classic pattern--he’s off to play trad-based songs that “don’t fit the Elbow template” with his mates from I Am Kloot (bassist Pete Jobson) and The Whip (guitarist Nathan Sudders), don’t wait up. But as it reels out the old lines it proves quite the charmer.

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User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. boweratbat
    Jan 29, 2016
    9
    Guy Garvey's first solo album, Courting the Squall, pares down the grandeur of Elbow's recent efforts. Though the spectacle of songs such asGuy Garvey's first solo album, Courting the Squall, pares down the grandeur of Elbow's recent efforts. Though the spectacle of songs such as "One Day Like This" and "The Birds" is curbed, the humanity is retained. The new tunes affect the listener to slowly sway or toe-tap, rather than fist-pump amid a gradually blooming crescendo. Garvey's chief lyrical talent is crafting seemingly mundane situations into melodic earworms that can't be extracted. Lines like "I'll build us a house out of wrestlerock shale," and "In the hills it's an overcoat colder," endure; the wordsmith imputes gravity into the intrinsically dull. Garvey is an elite lyricist, but the world-at-large—ok, Americas—haven't realized this. Albeit selfish, I hope they don't. Listening to Courting the Squall feels like being privy to a secret that is too rich to share.… Full Review »
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