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MojoJan 18, 2013Hands Of Glory is a flamboyant country cousin [to 2012's Break it Yourself]. [Feb 2013, p.92]
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Q MagazineDec 11, 2012Maybe he's not the kind of artist you need to hear stripped down. [Jan 2013, p.101]
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MagnetDec 4, 2012This sidecar is neither evolution nor revolution, though its eight tracks contain a fair share of intrigue and insight into Bird's feverish 2011, as well as a contemporary rearrangement so sweet it should comer rimmed in sugar. [No. 93, p.58]
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Nov 29, 2012Moments of quality do intersperse these drags.
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Nov 9, 2012Hands of Glory is a smaller, more intimate work than Andrew Bird's recent albums.
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Nov 5, 2012For all Bird's reverence for American rural music of the past, Hands is startlingly contemporary.
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Nov 5, 2012Hands Of Glory is yet another right step in a discography which is yet to falter or fail. This is as essential as a bits and bobs album comes.
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Nov 1, 2012Bird stays true to his whimsical and intricate style while embracing the limitations of recording an acoustic set circled around a single microphone.
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Nov 1, 2012Hands of Glory possesses an almost academic quality, as though Bird and his cohorts were presenting a musical essay about endtimes imagery in country music.
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Oct 31, 2012Produced in the same Luddite fashion as Break it Yourself, Hands of Glory takes that austerity one step further by recording all of the proceedings on a single microphone, resulting in a set that sounds both out of time and incredibly immediate.
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Oct 31, 2012The majority of Hands of Glory is devoted to covers, though, and while Bird already has plenty of fine covers in his catalogue ("Don't Be Scared", "Trimmed + Burning", "The Giant of Illinois"), his efforts here are something near enough lacklustre and uninspiring.
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Oct 30, 2012The whole EP feels familiar, either from the carryover from Bird's previous albums (most notably Break It Yourself) or from things you've heard before but can't quite put your finger on-it doesn't shock or change the course of rivers, but it does invite, and welcome, and maybe pour you a cup of tea and ask about your day.
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Oct 29, 2012Companion piece Hands of Glory restructures the old and new alike in dusty-trail cowboy swag.
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Oct 29, 2012Hands of Glory might not stand alone as a release without the context provided by Break It Yourself, but it nevertheless serves as a testament to how capable and creative Bird can be when he's dialed in.
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Oct 29, 2012While lacking the meat of Break It Yourself's full band version, Bird's solo take shows off both his soulful violin lines and enticingly languorous vocals.
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Oct 29, 2012Bird is too much of a seasoned professional to release anything less than listenable, so although none of this is particularly compelling, it's all well performed in a relatively stripped down, acoustic setting.
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Oct 29, 2012His palate of sepia tones coupled with essentially contemporary lyrical twitches loses much of what makes Bird special, instead relegating Hands of Glory, to a heartwarming and honest tribute--and little else.
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Oct 29, 2012While it's still a triumph of moody, Appalachia-drenched indie pop, Hands of Glory exists as merely a portion of a divided project that should have remained whole.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 10
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Mixed: 1 out of 10
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Negative: 0 out of 10
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Nov 8, 2012
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Nov 1, 2012With Andrew Bird