Courting the Squall
by Guy Garvey
  • Record Label: Polydor
  • Release Date: Oct 30, 2015
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
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  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 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 seeminglyGuy 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.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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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
  1. The Telegraph (UK)
    Nov 13, 2015
    80
    The result is more urgent, less reassuringly structured than your typical Elbow record.
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  2. The Independent (UK)
    Nov 6, 2015
    80
    As you’d expect from Elbow’s frontman, the songs on this debut solo album rarely stray too far from the sleeve on which Guy Garvey wears his heart.
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  3. 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.
    Read full review
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