- Record Label: Matador / Jeepster
- Release Date: May 24, 2005
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Entertainment WeeklyIrresistible. [3 Jun 2005, p.86]
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If anything, this 25-song double set sees Belle & Sebastian at their finest.
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Even if you already have all the EPs, you'll want to get this disc. It is reasonable priced, housed in the usual attractive package, and hearing all the songs back to back reinforces what an amazing group Belle & Sebastian were and are.
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Push Barman truly captures the trajectory of the band’s seven-year career in about two hours, and it does so in a way that does the band justice.
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As a document of the way Belle And Sebastian have grown up in public to the sturdy staple of indie pop they now represent on a global scale, 'Push Barman...' is an essential collection of work that simply cements their status as one of the most inspirational musical collectives to have embraced punk's D.I.Y ethic since the late 1970s.
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It's a perfect way into the world of Belle and Sebastian, even if the band spends the second half of the disc trying to redecorate that space.
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The quality level is almost inhumanly high, and the range of the tracks here gives you a better idea of what the band is like than any of their individual albums.
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The results are less like a rarities collection and more like an unlikely greatest hits album.
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In addition to simply being a package for the band's more obscure tracks, the album nicely spans its shift from folksy, melancholy introspectiveness to light summer-pop.
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New Musical Express (NME)If you want to know about the Glasgow scene which spawned Franz Ferdinand, 'Push Barman To Open Old Wounds' is pretty much essential. [21 May 2005, p.66]
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If you’re only going to buy one Belle & Sebastian album (and shame on you if you are), make it this one.
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Perhaps the best overall representation of Belle and Sebastian’s distinctive brand of indie pop.
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It's two discs of steady brilliance.
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Q MagazineOpinions will still be divided--Murdoch as literary giant or self-important art school berk?--as, over 25 tracks, there's evidence of both. [Jul 2005, p.129]
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FilterThere aren't many dull points on this two-disc collection. [#16, p.93]
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Push Barman To Open Old Wounds is a rare species indeed; though all of the songs could be considered “hits,” the album avoids all of the tackiness associated with greatest hits collections.
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Under The RadarThese EP tracks are just as good--and often times better--than many of their LPs. [#10, p.109]
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MagnetThese are the quiet, beautiful songs that made Belle & Sebastian seem so monumental for a short time. [#68, p.88]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 50 out of 56
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Mixed: 1 out of 56
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Negative: 5 out of 56
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Feb 13, 2016
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FrancisMAug 19, 2006The "Louder Than Bombs" for a new generation.
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SteveTMay 31, 2006Everyone has said what needs to be said about this album. Wow. Just go buy it.