- Record Label: Interscope
- Release Date: Sep 16, 2008
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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If soft-hearted London folkies Noah And The Whale aren’t quite as deft with savoury rice, they’ve got the knack of balancing heart-melting, pupil-dilating ditties with words of chill bleakness down pat.
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It requires TLC, and some listeners–-and I count myself among them–-are just too heavy-handed to stay in its company long.
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Perhaps it's just that the rest of the songs aren't up to scratch, but this album is a simple case of diminishing returns--what appeared carefree and sparkly-eyed to begin with feels more and more calculated as you go on, what first seemed endearing ends up feeling a little irritating.
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The twinkling acoustic songs, bursting with brass, keyboards and fiddle are economic and brimming with sure-footed confidence but Fink's brittle cynicism ultimately leaves Noah & the Whale stranded
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Their foppish indieboy spin on classic folk-rock is, more often than not, perfectly listenable. But you can't help but wonder, between all the gleeful strums and wizened howls, whether they possess the inner torment to carry off such worldly material.
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Noah and the Whale try their best to make weighty songs (look no further than the paint-by-numbers description of a funeral on the limp “Death by Numbers”), but they’re better as a pop group that digs ukuleles and acoustic guitars.
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All in all, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, even with its mortality obsession, is mostly a statement of nothing, but at least it sounds good most of the time.
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UncutTwenty-one-year-old Charlie Fnk's cracked baritone is brown sugar-sweet, '5 Years Time' is a hit, and the album's Jonathan Richman-esque gawkiness makes it double endearing. [Oct 2008, p.94]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 19
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Mixed: 2 out of 19
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Negative: 1 out of 19
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Jun 12, 2015
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Feb 12, 2020
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Feb 6, 2014