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In the end Love Is Simple is less than the sum of its parts. Its balls-out rock is fun but hopelessly overloaded (like, how many vocal tracks do these songs really need?) while its softer sections sound like brief intermissions before the guitars pick up again, making them relatively limp.
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It's not that so many of these disparate sections sound bad--on the contrary, they're generally quite listenable and often feel like excellent mini-songs--but that they seem to willfully distract from a far more worthwhile mantle that Akron/Family are more than capable of taking up.
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There is so much to go back to, beyond cheap thrills and catchy, yet dimensionless, hooks. An album for the ages.
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It's as wild and heterogeneous as the rest of the band's work, and manages to bring all the elements at play in their music into the tightest, most carefully balanced equilibrium they've achieved yet.
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MagnetThe LP is an unpredictable and often euphoric collection with plenty to, well, love. [Fall 2007, p.90]
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MojoThey offer up a wonderful lysergic carousel of communal singalongs, spiked pop and tribal hoedowns. [Nov 2007, p.95]
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Akron/Family do joy justice. You could focus on the psychedelic country folk experimentation and the odd song structures, but what you really take away from this album is pure childlike joy, even during the darker minor-key moments.
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Akron/Family have stepped into the light for the first time with Love Is Simple, and the results alternate between gawky and deeply enjoyable; the record is bursting at its seams with lovingly and vividly realized ideas culled from a broad selection of prior works.
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The results are not only boot-in-the-ass surprising, but also the best thing the band has done to date.
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Often eccentric and unpredictable, Love Is Simple is wholly listenable because it is compelling, honest, and joyful.
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Q MagazineAt times it meanders, but their weirdness is quite wonderful. [Nov 2007, p.134]
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Love Is Simple is Akron’s most streamlined album, one that bridges their multitudes and, finally, puts forth a series of discreet songwriting ideas rather than merely splashing about in genres.
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There’s some exceptional songwriting here.
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The WireAlthough the hard-hearted and selfconsciously cool may dismiss them as the avant folk scene's answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, that's no reason to deny one's self the joyous singalong harmonies of 'Don't Be Afraid, You're Already Dead." [Oct 2007, p.71]
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Suspending cynicism for a moment, this is their strongest release to date.
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UncutMany of their songs go on for weeks, doing little but reiterating banal refrains, badly confusing hypnotic with merely repetitious. [Nov 2007, p.96]
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Under The RadarThe result is pockets of exultant moments when everything comes together and the joyful noise bursts through the clouds. [Fall 2007, p.78]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 15 out of 18
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Mixed: 1 out of 18
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Negative: 2 out of 18
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MaxA.Dec 12, 2007The most pretentious record of the year. Load and obnoxious band.
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MattD.Nov 19, 2007I crank this album up all the time.
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TylerOct 8, 2007I can't stop listening to this. It's hard to not let the hippie-acid-love trip intoxicate you. My favorite record of this year.