Misery Is A Butterfly
- Blonde Redhead
- Band Name: Blonde Redhead
- Record Label: 4AD
- Release Date: Mar 23, 2004
- Critic Score
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Arguably the best album in their career.
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86Misery doesn't step forward so much as expand outward; roughly half of the album... sounds as if it could've been lifted off of Melody. The other half is purely visceral. [#10, p.91]
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Despite the increased emphasis on production, like Blonde Redhead's entire catalogue, the chirping, child-like cords of lead vocalists Amedeo Pace and Kazu Makino act as the essential ingredient to the bands avant-garde concoction.
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80It's not just the vocals that captivate. The sheer busyness of the whole production and all the sounds are to be marvelled at, and though it would be easy to over-egg, they never allow any of the tracks to be cluttered or overblown.
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80They've carved a bleak and beautiful album; their best, in fact. [May 2004, p.106]
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80Repeated listens... reveal the album's complexity and highlight how far the band has come in the four years since their last release.
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The album's soft-focus allows Blonde Redhead to explore its relatively newfound romanticism more deeply than before... but with less tension between the fragile and harsh aspects of the band's sound, its soft-focus occasionally drifts into lack of focus.
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80Like an air-bushed Slint re-emerging with Stereolab as their chief influence, Blonde Redhead engulf their guitars beneath so many keyboard tinkerings.
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The whole affair has a grandiose, almost decadent feel to it, with its damaged beauty and elegance.
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80The expansion of their sound to include breathtaking strings and keyboards has proven to lift Blonde Redhead out of the post-rock mire and recreated them as a band finally worthy of their past praise.
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80A rewarding new departure. [#242, p.72]
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The album is something of a wash, packing a less potent dose of Makino but an extra kick of Pace.
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79The bristling energy that once held would-be sympathizers at bay has been turned inward, resulting in an unprecedented illusion of warmth.
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75[Has a] swirling spy-movie ambience. [Jun 2004, p.108]
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70It is never fun, but is always compelling.
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70It works, mainly: though one or two songs could benefit from the old viciousness, these are seductive confections. [Apr 2004, p.104]
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70Blonde Redhead's most confounding element is also one of their most endearing. With her ethereal, paper-thin voice, [Kazu] Makino often slips frustratingly off-key. [May 2004, p.84]
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70An otherworldly, richly cinematic adventure. [May 2004, p.98]
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A bang-up mix of electronic song structure and guitar impressionism.
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70Deliberately slow in tempo, delicately arranged, emphatically "dreamy" in tone, Misery is a Butterfly is lovely, but also difficult going for Blonde Redhead fans.
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Despite sounding derivative at times, Misery... further refines [their] volatile mix with a touch of fidgety elegance. [19 Mar 2004, p.65]
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Blonde Redhead haven't run out of ideas, but Misery strips them of their eccentricities so thoroughly that the few that remain sound out of place.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 10
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Mixed: 0 out of 10
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Negative: 1 out of 10
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MartyS.10An album of absolute wonder ......... can't get enough!
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jyotirmayad9
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kellyw2