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Many Colored Kite Image
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The second solo album for The Jayhawks' Mark Olson was produced by Beau Raymond.
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  • Record Label: Rykodisc
  • Genre(s): Country, Americana, Pop/Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Country-Rock
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Top Track

Bluebell Song
In all the time I've known you And loved you from afar Let me go now let me stay Let me go back on your way I know 'cause I'm getting lost In the... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Uncut
    Dec 20, 2010
    80
    He's a man who cleary thrives on company, his stringy voice bolstered by the presence of Jolie Holland, Neal Casel, an on "No time To live Without Her," Vashti Bunyan. [Jan 2011, p.92]
  2. Olson is still processing some pain, but there are plenty of bright moments.
  3. Olson's ability to center a song around the shivery hum from a cello's bow is one of those quietly expressive abilities that can so easily be overlooked. Filled with and shaped around these kind of moments, Many Colored Kite is resolutely marked with sure signs of experience and skill.
  4. Whether singing solo or harmonizing with Ringvold or Jazz singer Jolie Holland, Olson is the star of the show. His voice, though imperfect and shopworn, is placed front and center where it has the ability to send chills through the listener.
  5. Not as cohesive as The Salvation Blues, Many Colored Kites is still a worthy and brave album that finds Mark Olson continuing to find new ways of sharing what life has taught him through his music.
  6. The problem with Olson's dual interests in simplicity and freeform song structures is that the songs on Many Colored Kite come out shapeless, and practically devoid of hooks of any kind.
  7. Q Magazine
    Mar 1, 2011
    60
    There's nothing to diminish his status as a nearly great, albeit mostly unheralded, American songwriter. [Feb 2011, p.120]