User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info

Don't Do Anything
by
  • Record Label:
  • Release Date:
Don't Do Anything Image
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 8 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the first album not produced by T-Bone Burnett for the California-born singer-songwriter Sam Phillips.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Q Magazine
    80
    Always an intriguing lyricist, her divorce from producer T. Bone Burnett seems to have added a bittersweet dimension to her words too. [Oct 2008, p.150]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. Hot Press
    80
    Phillips’ vocal style is of the quietly devastated Erin Moran/Aimee Mann school, backlit by Bacharach-and-Wilson-ish arrangements on ‘Another Song’, ‘Little Plastic Life’ and ‘Flower Up’.
  3. Trouser Press
    80
    Brimming with confidence and good humor, Don’t Do Anything is another high point in a career that threatens to become overstuffed with them.
  4. PopMatters
    80
    Phillips realizes that music, like life, is found in the flaws. She creates sonic sandcastles with strings and percussion and croons above it, but her inner eye is open and sees the waves crashing to the shore.
  5. Boston Globe
    80
    Anyone who rues the scarcity of smart, serious pop music for grown-ups should snap up the entire Sam Phillips catalog. On second thought, skip "Omnipop." But don't miss Phillips's splendid new effort, Don't Do Anything, a collection that dances in her signature mystery space between darkness and light with strange grace, emotional candor, and winsome hooks.
  6. Paste Magazine
    80
    On Don’t Do Anything, she succeeds beautifully by doing nothing more than being the best possible version of herself.
  7. AllMusic
    80
    With Don't Do Anything, Sam Phillips has struck out on her own with a work that's among her most challenging to date, and it reveals that she's held on to the gifts that have made her one of the most rewarding singer/songwriters of her generation while adding fresh accents as she follows her muse with commendable courage and clarity.

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. JillL.
    Jun 18, 2008
    10
    I have not stopped listening to this CD since I received the downloads from Nonesuch, and was also blessed to meet Sam in S.F. at Borders and I have not stopped listening to this CD since I received the downloads from Nonesuch, and was also blessed to meet Sam in S.F. at Borders and hear her sing these songs. Her music affects me more deeply than any other music I have ever heard, and it stays with me as feelings of hope and unending possibilities. She is a gift to us all.… Collapse
  2. JesseS.
    Jun 19, 2008
    8
    Reliably ingenious, but could use some more weirdness.
  4. JamesB.
    Jun 25, 2008
    8
    I'm very happy to see/hear the return of one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters. "Don't Do Anything" is an excellent I'm very happy to see/hear the return of one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters. "Don't Do Anything" is an excellent collection of intelligent and melodic pop tunes. And I feel it's a slight improvement on "A Boot and a Shoe". That's not to say I "disliked" Sam's previous album, only that her new release is more consistent. Aside from a couple tracks that too easily recall "A Boot and a Shoe", Sam's new album refreshingly features a fair amount of actual "electric guitar", especially on the superb "My Career in Chemistry" (one of the most original and "rockiest" tunes in her catalogue). Other standouts include: "Flowers Up", "Under the Night", "Signal", "Another Song" and the title track. All in all, this is one of my favorite albums so far in 2008.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Best Album of 2008

Current Music Releases

Full List »
99 Band on the Run [50th Anniversary Edition] - Paul McCartney & Wings
95 The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow - Charles Lloyd
92 This Could Be Texas - English Teacher
92 COWBOY CARTER - Beyoncé
91 The Carnegie Hall Concert - Alice Coltrane
90 1989 (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift
90 Iechyd Da - Bill Ryder-Jones
89 I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy
89 Black Bayou - Robert Finley
89 Tigers Blood - Waxahatchee
89 Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend
88 Ozarker - Israel Nash
88 What Now - Brittany Howard
88 Hey Panda - The High Llamas
88 Orquídeas - Kali Uchis
88 The Past Is Still Alive - Hurray for the Riff Raff
87 Filthy Underneath - Nadine Shah
87 i/o - Peter Gabriel
87 Lahai - Sampha
87 Blue Lips - ScHoolboy Q
All Current Music »