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Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You
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Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You Image
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: The former Test Icicles frontman Devonte Hynes of Lightspeed Champion returns with the follow-up to 2008's Falling Off The Lavender Bridge. Produced by Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley), Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is a collection of songs influenced by classical music andThe former Test Icicles frontman Devonte Hynes of Lightspeed Champion returns with the follow-up to 2008's Falling Off The Lavender Bridge. Produced by Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley), Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You is a collection of songs influenced by classical music and musical theatre.… Expand

Top Track

I Don't Want To Wake Up Alone
Not so sweet dreams I never was one to love Please don't wake me In this life, I've had enough Oh, oh If you love me If you want me don't ignore... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. The A.V. Club
    83
    The flow of the album from shout-along to chilling ballad to piano etude and back again is uneven, but the lack of a conventional dynamic feels more candid and endearing than anything else.
  2. Uncut
    80
    He couches this misery in beautiful arrangements, writing on the piano, orchestrating with strings, and pitching his ambition somewhere between Serge Gainsbourg and Todd Rundgren. [Feb 2010, p.90]
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  3. musicOMH.com
    80
    But what comes through now is the strength of the songwriting, and his willingness to try out new things.
  4. PopMatters
    70
    Although it is fairly obvious that he could perfect the country-sunshine-singed folk-pop of his debut almost effortlessly should he wish, Hynes has instead delivered a multi-faceted breakdown of his own hyperactive productivity.
  5. Spin
    70
    Devonté Hynes pens an indie-rock passion play that picks up the tempo and spotlights his thespian skills
  6. Pitchfork
    67
    Alternately inspired and frustrating, it addresses themes of lost love (and lost chicness) with Queen-size 70s-rock pomp, neoclassical interludes, and one ukulele-based chamber-pop song.
  7. Mojo
    40
    Despite being probably the best illustration of the scope of his creative impulses, ultimately Life Is... capsizes under the weight of its own cleverness. [Feb 2010, p. 104]
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See all 23 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 1 out of 1
  1. popolopolous
    Mar 30, 2011
    3
    I came into Life Is Sweet! expecting a lot. I'd seen the video for Marlene: the song was catchy. Lightspeed Champion's previous album to thisI came into Life Is Sweet! expecting a lot. I'd seen the video for Marlene: the song was catchy. Lightspeed Champion's previous album to this day remains one of my favourite albums. But I was sorely disappointed.

    Life is Sweet! lacks the thing that made Lavender Bridge great: identity. Lavender Bridge was unique. While it had obvious influences, they all combined to form a greater whole, and a being that transcended influences to become a beast of its own. This album throws that identity out, in favour of variety as it swings between western to pop-rock to piano-led ballads to small classical-inspired instrumentals, and through this mechnical genre-running removes the raw emotion and humanity that Lavender had in spades.

    But, taken on its own merits, is Life Is Sweet! still a good album? The answer is possibly. While none of the songs are 'bad' per se, instrumentation is occasionally incongruous with the song it's in, repetition is featured highly but of the annoying parts of the songs, and as a complete album it is far too unfocused and dithering. Sweetheart is the best representation of the album as a whole: the song begins with an acoustic guitar, breaking tension with a bass guitar and swelling vocals in the chorus and showing fantastic amounts of potential - then it breaks its mood, momentum and quality as it breaks into a western, nearly hoe-down sounding refrain with Dev whining an annoying melody. Life Is Sweet! definitely had potential, but is overall disappointing - both standing alone, and as the follow-up to Lavender Bridge.    … Collapse

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