New Roman Times
- Camper Van Beethoven
- Band Name: Camper Van Beethoven
- Record Label: Vanguard
- Release Date: Oct 12, 2004
- Critic Score
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Camper Van Beethoven have pulled off the difficult trick of not only reuniting, but picking up exactly where they had left off.
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70Despite some failures on the story-telling side, New Roman Times is a fantastic disc if you already happen to be a Camper Van Beethoven fan.
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70Unfortunately, these high points are surrounded by plenty of semi-coherent nonsense about the wanderings of their fictional protagonist soldier boy.
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40There's too much instrumental cleverness to get to grips with the theme. [Nov 2004, p.118]
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80The band's trademark cracked songcraft... is here in spades. [Nov 2004, p.99]
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30Fails on multiple fronts. [Dec 2004, p.116]
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The songs are hit-and-miss.
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As drama, it poses no threat to King Lear or even Quadrophrenia, but it makes for an unpredictable record that unmistakably operates in the proud tradition of CVB's past work.
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83A sweetly embittered geopolitical epic. [Dec 2004, p.124]
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70Moves seamlessly from ironic cock-rock and steel guitar-kissed hymns to crisply melodic pop and full-on hippie freakouts. [Oct 2004, p.116]
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70An entertaining mishmash of off-kilter, raw and psychedelia-tinged rockers, jazz fusion-like instrumentals, gypsy-styled dance tracks and country hoedowns and pedal-steel twang.
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Camper's new work is not only as strong as ever, but also more relevant than ever before.
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70While the dizzying mix of musical styles and absurdist lyrics is still there, Camper are a much more skilled, mature band.
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80In a way CVB's New Roman Times is on par career-wise with Rush's 2112 - well, minus the klezmer anyway.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 0 out of 6
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debh10
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kattlb9a really smart spin on what the world has become
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jamesw7