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Sep 21, 2016Often working separately as they balanced various side projects, the recording sessions for Heads Up have resulted in an eclectic, nuanced collection of songs.
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Sep 19, 2016At 52 minutes, it is no longer than your standard album, and yet it has seemingly bottomless depths and wide-open horizons that reward the listener with the possibilities of unending exploration. The fact that it can never be fully known makes it all the more revelatory.
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Nov 22, 2016Heads Up could easily pick things up right where the band left off, as it elaborates upon the Warpaint dreampop while bringing in purposeful elements of dance-pop and post-rock.
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MojoSep 27, 2016The understated widescreen desolation of their eponymous second album marked a breakthrough for Warpaint, their artfully washed-out funk-punk making more sense than ever. The follow-up, Heads Up balances that downbeat vibe with more upbeat, poppy elements, creating a tension that's electric. [Nov 2016, p.91]
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Sep 26, 2016Warpaint are at the very top of their game, showcasing a full understanding of their sound and the tools needed to get the best out of it. Heads Up is more of a sideways swerve for the band as opposed to a notable shift.
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Sep 22, 2016Many shades of grey and fragments of sound have gone into Heads Up, which is much greater than the sum of its parts.
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Sep 22, 2016Heads Up proves that the quick turnaround suits them; instead of seeming rushed, the album feels spontaneous and fearless.
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Sep 22, 2016This time, the fiery furnace powering their new record comes from slashing open every membrane; letting ideas wildly collide like supercharged, excitable atoms. Brushstrokes and processes are all over this record.
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Sep 21, 2016More adventurous and free-spirited than the Warpaint of before, but retaining the laid-back DNA at their core. For once, Warpaint sound like they’re having fun--and it suits them.
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Sep 19, 2016It’s a journey through their journey, and of influences and styles we’ve all known and loved. But it has all the joy of something completely new, pulled together at the seams lovingly and beautifully into a patchwork that, at first, may feel like clash or confusion but in time feels full of strength.
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Sep 23, 2016The band has become more adept at bringing its love of body music to the forefront and melding it with experimental impulses.
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Sep 22, 2016Even in ending on a starkly depressing note, Heads Up is a strong, evocative record that solidifies Warpaint as one of the genre’s most creative and entertaining.
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Sep 22, 2016With so many co-existing styles, what could have been a disjointed listen is reigned in thanks to intelligent songwriting, contemporary production, and, most importantly, an intensity that elevates everything with impenetrable confidence and cool.
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Sep 23, 2016Warpaint are nothing if not ambitious, which is doubly proved on Heads Up.
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Sep 23, 2016Their third full length brings out the inchoate danceability in their sound more than ever, steeped in the band's recent R&B and hip-hop listening.
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Sep 19, 2016At this stage Warpaint still have their boots in two camps: the icy cool of their indie heritage and the open-hearted joy of the kind of music they clearly want to make. As the album progresses the vibrancy that decorates its first half starts to brown.
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Sep 29, 2016The album as a whole is more suited for seated, solitary brooding than for anything as lively as moving your body.
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Oct 25, 2016The things the band does right on this album make it worth checking out, but hopefully next time around Warpaint will be able to keep the songwriting as consistently great throughout as the beginning and ending songs.
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Sep 26, 2016Warpaint’s third album is aptly titled, given the startling outbreak of focus here.
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Q MagazineSep 23, 2016They're at their most effective, however, when they allow their songcraft to dictate the swirl, rather than vice versa. [Nov 2016, p.115]
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Sep 22, 2016Songwriting points remain shrouded, and voices drowsy, but an understated fearlessness pears through the mist.
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Sep 19, 2016Heads Up will still please some fans, and the band will be able to work some of these tracks into respectable live numbers; they’ll even win new listeners. The problem for devotees of the band’s earlier work, and for anyone who’s seen them live, is that they’ll cherish the memory of what Warpaint could (and probably still can) do.
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Sep 28, 2016Heads Up feels like an album bound to be forgotten.
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UncutSep 23, 2016They sound reinvigorated, if somewhat aimless. [Nov 2016, p.40]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 27 out of 36
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Mixed: 5 out of 36
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Negative: 4 out of 36
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Oct 15, 2016
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Sep 25, 2016
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Jan 12, 2017