Let It All In - I Am Kloot
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
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  1. PopMatters
    Feb 15, 2013
    80
    Overall, there is a return to the less expansive sound of early I Am Kloot without the grand strings and orchestral swoops of “Sky at Night”, the trio tight but relaxed with Bramwell’s voice pushed to the fore and the songs sounding better for it.
  2. The Line of Best Fit
    Feb 11, 2013
    75
    Let It All In is another strong album in I Am Kloot’s canon, and one which should hopefully see their status as songwriting legends confirmed.
  3. All Music Guide
    Jan 30, 2013
    70
    While overall, I Am Kloot's sixth album reads like a heartfelt and stylized ten-chapter celebration of classic pop--with the opening half consolidating Bramwell's position as one of England's most unjustifiably overlooked songwriters--it's only a minor disappointment that four of the final five chapters included here sail dangerously close to pastiche.
  4. Q Magazine
    Jan 24, 2013
    80
    As homeopathic remedies for heartache and life's unkindness, these reflective songs are persuasive and when the group decide to fly with the moment-seizing, easy-psych These Days Are Mine, it's doubly invigorating. [Feb 2013, p.105]
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  5. New Musical Express (NME)
    Jan 22, 2013
    70
    With this, their follow-up, they're in familiar miserably poetic folk-song territory. For some reason, every song evokes the pub.
  6. The Observer (UK)
    Jan 22, 2013
    60
    The best of these blues and folk-indebted songs carry the faint warmth and reassuring whiff of an old pub as frontman John Bramwell reflects wittily on life's disappointments. But there's a pervading drabness that they struggle to shake.
  7. The Independent on Sunday (UK)
    Jan 22, 2013
    80
    It marries a downbeat songcraft to an expansive sound courtesy of producers Guy Garvey and Craig Potter.
  8. The Telegraph (UK)
    Jan 18, 2013
    80
    While these songs are like discarded pub furniture, Bramwell sounds like a wiley old alley cat, sat on top of it and looking up.
  9. Mojo
    Jan 18, 2013
    80
    It's Bramwell's knack for a kind of "surely this one must be a cover-version" classicism that impresses most. [Feb 2013, p.96]
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  10. The Independent (UK)
    Jan 18, 2013
    60
    Let It All In is stylishly rendered in simple instrumental colours, but it's not the cheeriest of experiences.
  11. This Is Fake DIY
    Jan 17, 2013
    70
    At times it's so polite and elegant it almost passes you by, yet on every song you're soon gently overpowered by the sheer heart and homespun wisdom of the lyrics.
  12. Uncut
    Jan 16, 2013
    80
    Let It All In is all kitchen-sink realism and mordant one-liners best exemplified in the TS Elliot-influenced "Some Day Better."
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  13. Drowned In Sound
    Jan 16, 2013
    80
    Let It All In is a tighter, more relaxed LP, full of beautifully restrained, crafted songs.
  14. BBC Music
    Jan 16, 2013
    70
    It's a consistently intriguing album and, in the long run, may even prove more enduring than its predecessor.
  15. The Fly (UK)
    Jan 16, 2013
    80
    Over far too quickly, it's another near flawless record from the Manchester trio.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. come2whereiam
    8
    Ever since I first heard ‘To You’ the opening track from their debut album ‘Natural History’ I knew that I Am Kloot would be a band to watch. watch. ‘Let Them All In’ is their sixth studio album and one of their best it is both beautiful and understated. Produced once again by Elbow’s Guy Garvey and Craig Potter it is a perfect bedfellow to the elbow sound. The only difference between them being the voices, whereas Garvey is angelic and ethereal Bramwell is earthy and coarse but a song like ‘Even The Stars’ could have been written and sung by either band. Opener ‘Bullets’ puts you in mind of what to expect from this record, the fuller sound of previous album ‘Sky At Night’ has been stripped away in places allowing the ten new compositions to take a minimal approach. ‘Mouth On Me’ recalls the scally swagger of ‘Shack’ circa ‘H.M.S. Fable’ while ‘Hold Back The Night’ is laden with lush strings. Elsewhere acoustic guitars are occasionally punctured by slabs of feedback or some horns and subtle drums and bass hold the backbone on which Bramwell hangs his masterful lyrics. One thing a lot of musicians fail to achieve is to give the songs room to breathe but here the band are a dab hand at just that, leaving space where needed and not over playing. Title track ‘Let Them All In’ is an impeccable example of the I Am Kloot sound, the way it unconventionally drops before the chorus, its bold and different and that’s why this band aren’t filling stadiums, they are just too clever to allow themselves to go down that route. Constantly challenging and fourteen years into their career it doesn’t look like they will sell out anytime soon I just wish that more people would take them to their hearts because after all they are one of the great British bands that no one has really heard of, which in my opinion is a crying shame.… Full Review »
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