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Overflowing with talent and ambition, Golden Archipelago is that rare kind of great album: tackling big ideas and attempting chancy things while delivering a product that feels flawlessly and decisively whole.
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The details – the drone of a guitar string, the reverberation of a drum mallet, the swoon of a string section --- are reason enough to reward a close listen.
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Archipelago is an argument against verse-chorus-verse structure, and a good one—a rewarding, slow-melting album for patient listeners.
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Formerly, you’d envision a samba paced song like “An Insular Life” to grow into a meaty, strong-armed force but here, Meiburg and Co. allow for the strings to bring it to a lifting end, well after they’d taken the drum’s pattern to a heavenly new place.
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Serving as the final part of a trilogy that includes the much feted records Rook and , the album is an epic feat of baroque pop craftsmanship, something akin to an update of Scott IV or Dusty in Memphis for the new millennium.
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Replete with moments of jubilance and tranquillity, cataclysm and contemplation, it feels like the successful culmination of everything the band have been aiming towards over their career to date.
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It is more fluid, more subtle; as such, it pulls you in gradually, irresistibly, its icy black under-current taking hold when you least expect it.
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It's an album you can spend time with and understand as a whole work, and one that grows on you with each listen, revealing yet more detail and nuance.
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The Golden Archipelago presents a direly meditative culmination.
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With its serene landscapes and beautiful imagery, listening to The Golden Archipelago makes waiting for the tropical temperatures of summer all the more difficult.
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The Golden Archipelago falls somewhere in that tenuous space, never able to live up to the power of its initial impression. It’s more the kind of thing that should be fully absorbed over the course of a few attentive, complete listens, then allowed to dissipate into the realm of a beautiful idea.
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FilterOver the course of the 38-minute album, these nouvelle cuisine portions amost add up to a satiating whole. But it's good enough you'll be hungry for more. [Winter 2010, p.94]
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Meiburg’s voice is a wonder throughout, wonderfully fragile on ‘Hidden Lakes’, tearing it up on ‘Corridors’. A wonderful album.
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The Golden Archipelago is an admirable achievement: a project that has been meticulously prepared and executed with passion and flair.
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The Golden Archipelago, a toothy, epic examination of island life, both physical and metaphysical, is enigmatic to say the least.
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While the beauty of this record will surprise no one who’s been paying any attention to these guys, it’s the immediacy here--that driving pulse--that might catch you off guard. And keep you listening.
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Under The RadarGolden Archipelago provides beautiful, thoughtful music in an age sorely lacking both. [Winter 2010, p.66]
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Without the threat of squalls of feedback (like on Palo Alto) or serious climaxes (like on Rook), most of Golden Archipelago ends up as beautiful as the cover of the album, but with as little context.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 16
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Mixed: 0 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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Jan 22, 2016
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Jan 16, 2011