Feathers - Dead Meadow
Metascore
72 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 23
  2. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. Feathers is a thousand times more focused and mature than [Shivering King], and it's all for the better.
  2. A gorgeously euphonic skull-crusher.
  3. Haunting, gorgeously inward-looking, yet laced with memorable melodies, Feathers is Dead Meadow's strongest work ever and an early contender for one of 2005's best records.
  4. Feathers can be at times hypnosis-inducing. The effect of this hypnosis is that many of the unique moments on the album feel like dream states you aren't sure actually happened.
  5. Mesmerisingly beautiful. [2 Apr 2005, p.50]
  6. Feathers may not have the heft of Dead Meadow's other albums, but it's easily its most listenable and satisfying from end to end.
  7. 80
    Scales new heights of bong-loaded majesty. [May 2005, p.108]
  8. It's one thing to treat your influences with reverence, eyes and goals fixed on a past that brought them to you. It's another to fold them into the present, into the elusive omnipresence of the moment. And how Dead Meadow pulls this off on Feathers is an amazing thing to hear.
  9. It's not quite the masterpiece 2003's Shivering King And Others was, but it still knocks the piss out of [the Grateful Dead's] American Beauty. [Apr 2005, p.124]
  10. If you love The Icarus Line and Comets On Fire, and wonder what a record exploring the expansive middle ground between the two outfits might sound like, look/listen no further.
  11. The end result is what Ride's "Nowhere" would've sounded like had it been produced by Frank Zappa in 1972.
  12. It practically goes without saying that fans of guitar heavy psychedelia and mind-altering substances will find plenty to enjoy here.
  13. This is a subdued, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling kind of album, and coming after the majestic peaks and valleys of Shivering King and Others it initially feels a little disappointing.
  14. 70
    It would seem the sun has risen over Dead Meadow and the flowers are finally in bloom. [#67, p.90]
  15. There are enough interesting things going on throughout the album to keep it fresh for several listens.
  16. The disc essentially finds the now-quartet cleaning up and living right and letting the world see them as they are; their tracks are marked by much clean-fingered guitar playing (the added guitar meaning there's six-stringing back-and-forth) and only a recreational use and abuse of wah.
  17. While they might not track as much rich sonic mud over these tracks as they have on past albums, it doesn't hurt for a band to clean up every once in a while. [#9]
  18. 60
    The fact that Feathers never really goes anywhere is beside the point. [May 2005, p.106]
  19. An elongated, spacey drone of acidic riffage and flickering psych-rock ambience. [Apr/May 2005, p.135]
  20. Space-rock aficionados will dig the zero-G atmosphere, but it meanders through excessive pockets better left unexplored.
  21. 48
    Feathers isn't a bad album, just one without a discernable look--or hook. [#14, p.99]
  22. Too much of Feathers sounds like extended noodling jams. [May 2005, p.121]
  23. They've built upon the calm, dreamy songcraft that highlighted previous efforts, but the risky sludgefeasts have lost much of their psychedelic bluster, sounding instead like mellowed-out Mudhoney B-sides.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Dead Meadow craft an intelligent, psychedelic outing with Feathers. Each track seems to hold a different mood but it all flows together in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it the whole way through. B+ Full Review »
  2. CharlieCW
    10
    I'm not really rating the album, I'm rating how amazing they are live. Last night I saw them live at the Black Cat opening for Blue Cheer. I was standing right next to the speaker so I good really feel it and it was amazing. One of the best shows I've ever been to. Full Review »
  3. StaceyH
    9
    My true love for this album compels me to give it a 10, but to be fair and objective, i'll give it a 9. The album from start to finish is a coherent gathering of well structured songs, evocotive of a mood that music has lacked for far too long. This is meant to be heard in one long sit-down session, perceptive of the peaks, valleys, and spaces in between. The main criticism of this as opposed to the former album is that it is toned down a bit, and I think in this case it is a good thing; the arrangement of these songs represents the best showing of talent that Dead Meadow has produced to date. The only thing I did not like was the next to last track, with all it's uesless noise. I really don't like noise tracks that much. Full Review »