Hall Music
by Loney, Dear
Metascore
69

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
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  1. Mojo
    Dec 22, 2011
    80
    This is charming. And uplifting. Happy-sad but impossibly soothing. [Nov 2011, p.92]
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  2. Magnet
    Nov 11, 2011
    80
    "It's not sad, but it's not OK," sings Emil Svanangen on Hall Music, neatly delineating the album's emotional landscape, a narrow isthmus of calm stretching into a sea of sorrow. [#81, p. 57]
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  3. Under The Radar
    Nov 3, 2011
    80
    The album is most striking in what it conveys in simplicity. [Oct 2011, p.101]
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  5. The Guardian
    Oct 13, 2011
    80
    It's as though each song represents the push and pull of a mismatched relationship--and, brilliantly, the final word goes to the woman, with Malin Stahlberg singing What Have I Become? in a voice crushed by defeat yet bright with defiance.
  6. cokemachineglow
    Oct 4, 2011
    72
    Loney, Dear hasn't changed much, and that's what makes this inimitable album such great company.
  7. Blurt Magazine
    Jan 13, 2012
    70
    This music is big enough for a hall, but soft and heartfelt enough for the quietest corner.
  8. Drowned In Sound
    Oct 19, 2011
    70
    Hall Music, continues this reticent foray, concealing its quaint charms until six or seven concentrated plays have been sucked up and digested.
  9. musicOMH.com
    Oct 17, 2011
    70
    It's the sort of album that makes you want to lay down between the speakers and close your eyes; it's an album in which to get swept up.
  10. New Musical Express (NME)
    Oct 17, 2011
    70
    Still not Friday night material, then, but a moving display of one man's myriad sorrows nonetheless. Bless.
  11. Dusted Magazine
    Oct 4, 2011
    70
    In the end, Hall Music is an enjoyable but paradoxical album, both an expansion and contraction of Svanängen's palette.
  12. Consequence
    Oct 4, 2011
    70
    Hall Music offers some thrilling contrasts, both in style and mood, giving Loney, Dear's sound a more orchestral makeover.
  13. Pitchfork
    Oct 6, 2011
    67
    For all the sonic strides Svanangen takes on Hall Music, he sometimes seems stuck singing the same sad song.
  14. Beats Per Minute
    Oct 12, 2011
    64
    This is an artist that certainly knows how to kick it in, but you spend most of your time waiting for it.
  15. Paste Magazine
    Oct 4, 2011
    62
    Where Dear John hinted at cinematic grandeur and prayer-like melody, Hall Music is a spacious and somber affair.
  16. Q Magazine
    Nov 9, 2011
    60
    Lonely, Dear offers another helping of sweet melancholy on Hall Music. [Nov. 2011, p. 142]
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  17. PopMatters
    Oct 24, 2011
    60
    Hall Music's opener and closer offer the disc's finest moments, but, aside from a couple stumbles, the disc maintains a strong sense of sound throughout.
  18. Uncut
    Oct 18, 2011
    60
    The result is a seductively melancholy and unashamedly serious album that claws insistently at the heartstrings. [Nov 2011, p.91]
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  19. AllMusic
    Oct 4, 2011
    60
    Indeed, while the album is quite pretty and powerful at times, the overall mood of glacial gloom can be suffocating.
  20. The A.V. Club
    Oct 11, 2011
    50
    With Hall Music, Svanangen has proven he can compose big arrangements, but he might not write big music.

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