- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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A game of "name that influence" runs rampant from the album's start to its closing seconds.
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Alternative PressThe band ultimately lose the pop craftsmanship and hook-filled bite that distinguished their debut. [Oct 2005, p.166]
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BlenderOften, it's too much of a good thing. [Sep 2005, p.137]
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Overall, the effect is post-punk Cure with swathes of Ride in heady moments and, as overblown and unlistenable as these amassed elements might sound in your head, it's actually fantastic.
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It is missing IT - that something that makes a good album into a great, standout album.
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MagnetPicks up where [their debut] left off. [#69, p.108]
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MojoA charged return. [Mar 2006, p.96]
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The problem is Shawn Christensen's bellowingly unsubtle vocal style, which batters every last vestige of restraint out of its way as it strains for greater heights of veins-bulging volume-as-passion.
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Paste MagazineA pleasurable, spun-sugar confection. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.122]
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Harmonies for the Haunted seems as familiar as Stellastarr*'s 2003 debut, and that's at once its chief cincher and problem.
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On first listen 'Harmonies For The Haunted' seems slight enough to be a collection of b-sides and discarded songs from the first album.
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For every good example of what a 21st century band can do with new wave influences, there is a pale imitation of a song you thought was cool 20 years ago.
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Q MagazineGood, but should have been better. [Mar 2006, p.109]
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Stellastarr sound playful but passionate, flashing their Eighties go-feet beats ("Damn This Foolish Heart") alongside moody, Cure-style ballads.
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SpinPeople from New York trying to sound like people from England trying to imagine what Neil Young would sound like if he were in Coldplay. [Oct 2005, p.137]
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Stellastarr* pushes its new grasp of tension and release, and the album shows their increased sense of cohesion.
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Some promising tunes are weighed down by Shawn Christensen's vocals, which seem to have been invented purely to supply budding Simon Cowells with cruel one-liners.
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UncutRather desperately impersonates The Killers. [Mar 2006, p.94]
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Under The RadarHas the unmistakable sound of a sophomore slump. [#10, p.107]
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UrbThe addition of elegiac, slower songs ensure that this post-punk quarter is only moving forward. [Oct 2005, p.85]
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What gave Shawn Christensen and his botched tonsillectomy the idea of joining the exalted ranks of Robert Smith and Simon Le Bon?
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 35
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Mixed: 4 out of 35
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Negative: 2 out of 35
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SebastianMar 5, 2007Stellastarr*'s first album was so catchy and very Pixies-like. This one does suffer the "sophomore slump".
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ryannMar 2, 2006this is the BEST band ever and i recomend it to all ppls k lol
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JoaquinSJan 19, 2006