- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Oct 13, 2011John Cale's new five-track EP conceives and executes more great ideas in 21 minutes than most musicians do in 10 years.
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Nov 2, 2011He still has plenty to communicate, his music not losing any creative potency over the years.
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Nov 1, 2011Extra Playful is fun in the worst kind of way and, at times, bad in very fun ways, but as a whole it presents rather discouragingly the attempt of an auteur marooning--perhaps on purpose, but hardly with purpose--as an amateur.
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Oct 13, 2011For the most part, Extra Playful makes a nice addition to any modern rock playlist, though there's nothing on here that will drop your jaw.
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Oct 13, 2011Certainly no misnomered record, Extra Playful sounds more fun, excited and full of joie de vivre than anything else in Cale's extensive discography.
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Oct 13, 2011"Hey Ray" is a sore-thumb irritant on an EP that otherwise carefully mediates between Cale's populist and deviant tendencies.
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Oct 20, 2011He doesn't push it far enough to be useful, so the EP ends up being not quite as playful as its title suggests, but it's not especially noteworthy either.
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Oct 13, 2011Extra Playful is as easygoing and steady rolling as he's ever sounded, serving up hooks, elegant Euro-beats, and a modicum of glee in poking fun at his own uptight image.
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The WireDec 6, 2011Extra Playful lives up to its title. [Oct 2011, p.63]
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Nov 16, 2011This set of witty pop songs fits perfectly in the musical panorama of the last 15 years: there are no underground rock references, no orchestral pop sensibilities, no vacuous attempts at updating a 'decades-old' sound to modern audiences.