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Sep 30, 2011Go Tell Fire to the Mountain is surprisingly just a little too ordinary to be considered the groundbreaker many anticipated.
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Jul 6, 2011There is the obvious notable contrast between Roberts' blunt delivery and the lushly treated instrumentation. But there's a pillowy negative space between all the divergent aesthetics that creates a resounding heft and felt resonance.
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Jul 11, 2011Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, and WU LYF in general, are a band handicapped, seeming less like an actual group and more of an experiment. In what? In determining how much vocal pain listeners are willing to endure if the underlying music is actually pretty good.
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Jul 7, 2011Manically projectile vomiting his incomprehensibles over reverb-drenched warm tones, the guy makes Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner sound like Adam Levine. He's yelling something fierce, even if we can't understand it. But the instrumentation is dynamic, powerful, and accessible enough to balance things out.
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Jun 15, 2011Now stripped of their manufactured aura, WU LYF no longer have a platform but instead stand naked and shivering alongside hundreds of other bands with debut albums that don't satiate the need for instant greatness.
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Sep 6, 2011The stark contrast between frontman Ellery Robert's guttural, yell-sing vocals and the squeaky-clean instrumentation not only works harmoniously, but also creates a distinct and commanding sound.
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MagnetNov 22, 2011Offers both considerable beauty and ugliness. [#82, p. 62]
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MojoJun 24, 2011They only operate in one gear but it;s a sound that's full of passion, piss and vinegar. [Jul 2011, p.115]
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Jun 15, 2011WU LYF are a band to celebrate, a DIY tour de force, and their first album deserves a place of reverence in the modern indie-rock canon.
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Jun 15, 2011The swagger is really what drives that point home. Casual, not-bothered insouciance drips from Go Tell Fire To The Mountain.
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Jun 20, 2011The way they attempt to reinvent the idea of the rock band is admirable but quixotic; they;'re intriguing but way overhyped. The album is buried in just a bit too much sonic obscurity--their arrangements are at first elating, but eventually frustrating.
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Jun 24, 2011It's easy to imagine Go Tell Fire to the Mountain giving disaffected listeners the promise of an entry to something beyond themselves in a way that James Blake or Bon Iver can't. Maybe you've grown past that sort of thing, but what about a record of exhilarating expanse and passion that sounds like indie rock and yet feels way bigger? Well, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain is that too.
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Q MagazineJun 29, 2011Their debut is a giant leap in the right direction. [Jul 2011, p.118]
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Jun 15, 2011Go Tell Fire to the Mountain and WU LYF by extension soar on how excitingly singular they are; I want nothing more than to love this, just this, forever.
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Jul 6, 2011For all the outsider posturing, Mountain is a pretty conventional indie-rock record circa 2011, drawing on celebrated warhorses like Arcade Fire's Funeral and Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, as well as somewhat less fashionable sources, like Vampire Weekend and Kings Of Leon.
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Jun 15, 2011Some tracks are like collages of sound and voice. It rollercoasts from haunting to sad to simply exhilarating, and never loses a thrilling feeling that it could all go anywhere at any moment.
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Jun 15, 2011It's rather fine.
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Jul 6, 2011A shrewdly self-marketing, purposefully confusing gaggle of musicians and visual artists, WU LYF--which stands for World Unite/Lucifer Youth Foundation--plays music that's an exhilarating blur, swathed in echo and cymbal sizzle.
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UncutJul 28, 2011Virtually every song repeats the same trick, as the fervent but tuneless bark of singer Ellery Robert begins to grate. {Aug 2011, p.107]
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Under The RadarAug 5, 2011Wu Lyf has already managed to forge something uniquely Lyf-ian--songs at once raw and rambunctious but often soaring and celestial. [Jul 2011, p.83]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 23
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Mixed: 1 out of 23
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Negative: 3 out of 23
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Jun 26, 2011
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Jun 18, 2011
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Mar 24, 2012