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MojoDec 12, 2011It's out with the neon-fugged, reverb-soaked beats of 2009's Seek Magic and in with straight-up, catchy tunes. [Aug. 2011, p. 100]
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Q MagazineAug 8, 2011It's an album that sounds somehow both old and new, resembling Bibio and Yeasayer rewriting Brian Wilson's back catalogue. [Aug. 2011, p. 123]
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Aug 3, 2011The weakest element here is Hawks' voice. It's not distractingly bad, but at times it sounds like he's attempting to sing better than he may actually be capable of. But overall the effect is a good one.
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Jul 28, 2011Like the craft of the best tracks here, the album itself describes a smooth and clearly bookended parabola, an unexpectedly rainbow bridge, but one that, unlike the most well-known of these, is a pleasure, not a revelation.
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Jul 7, 2011Player Piano finds Hawk more concentrated and economical than ever. Unfortunately, it comes off more like complacency than conviction, that Hawk's either holding back on us, misreading his true strengths, not recognizing the need to rise to the occasion, or possibly all three.
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Jul 6, 2011Player Piano offers enough of Hawk's characteristically inventive sonic tinkering -- including, the title notwithstanding, an intriguing emphasis on organ sounds -- to merit repeated listens, even if these productions do sound worrisomely flat at times.
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Jun 30, 2011Player Piano is a musical jacket potato: satisfying but never amazing.
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Aug 22, 2011The problem is the lack of hooks, atmospherics and soul.