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Jan 17, 2012While each track on Cyrk brings to mind somebody else (Velvet Underground, "Genesis Hall"-era Fairport Convention, Comus, Spacemen 3), Le Bon somehow manages to make it all feel surprising natural.
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Apr 26, 2012[Cyrk] is a rare beast: a genuinely off-kilter pop record that never feels too self-conscious or contrived.
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Jan 17, 2012A new album from a new artist, with an old sound newly restored, think of this as a letter of recommendation to you, dear America.
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Jan 17, 2012Though Le Bon composes in the dark, she shows us a lighter, quirkier side in CYRK.
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Feb 21, 2012Pretty but not boring, eclectic but not overindulgent, Cyrk is the work of an artist still messing with all the possibilities in front of her.
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Jan 18, 2012Le Bon maintains a careful balance with her scattered ideas, presenting an album rich in curious charm.
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Apr 30, 2012For all its playful charm, CYRK is deliciously dark: it revels in its ability to marry calmness with the uncomfortable.
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Apr 27, 2012She's made an album that only she could have made, and frankly it's refreshing to hear a female singer from a folk background whose most obvious and overwhelming reference point isn't Joni Mitchell via Laura Marling.
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Jan 17, 2012It's many different things at once, but all of them are confident and powerful.
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MojoApr 20, 2012Evoking the ramshackle psychedelia of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Cryk nonetheless shows Le Bon following her own path. [May 2012, p.88]
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Apr 30, 2012It's when listening in this way [on headphones] that the nuances of the music, with its dark underbelly, open up and reveal themselves in a weird yet absorbing way.
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Apr 30, 2012A common thread can be found in CYRK, Cate's second album: the application of a sincere pop-song sensibility, and a yen for the surreal that sidesteps the zany.
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Jan 17, 2012Le Bon's pop sensibilities are much more pronounced, yet they don't dilute any of her wonderful weirdness.
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Jan 17, 2012As it progresses, CYRK loses some of its musical and descriptive vitality, but Le Bon lingers over these physical depictions, lending her songs a beguiling tactility as well as a strong gravity.
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Jan 18, 2012More than just chart her progression as a singer and songwriter, CYRK also sees Le Bon and her four-piece band developing into a crack psych-rock outfit that consistently leads the songs into unexpected places.
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Jan 18, 2012On Cyrk, Le Bon shows a promising step in a more challenging sound, one that lands-finally-on the right side of freak folk.
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Q MagazineApr 24, 2012Each of the 10 songs are beautifully simple, sounding like they've been passed down in a Welsh oral tradition from generations long forgotten. [May 2012, p.100]
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Feb 2, 2012Le Bon is doodling, but as she refines it, CYRK becomes a clear piece of work with a well-clarified core.
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Jan 17, 2012Cyrk is a bright, airy affair.
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Apr 27, 2012From the moment jumpy, garagepop opener 'Falcon Eyed' trapezes towards you, it's clear that Cate Le Bon is in carnival spirits throughout her second LP.
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Jan 17, 2012Stay with these songs a little while, and see where they go. Some come close to saying very little and end up saying more than you expect.
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UncutApr 6, 2012There's much beauty aid the flux of recorders, messy analogue synths and wayward sax. [May 2012, p.77]
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Jan 18, 2012The subsequent numbers unfold in a subtler, more impressionable way that showcases just how poignant and powerful Le Bon can be in her songwriting.