Metascore
74

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 10
  2. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Modern touches aside, many of the songs fall somewhere between the Stones' "Exile on Main Street," minus the desperation, and the Kinks classics " Village Green Preservation Society" and "Muswell Hillbillies."
  2. Real Close Ones will likely leave listeners dumbfounded, but the album should nonetheless be lauded for its break from convention.
  3. Following their first two crunching and careening albums, it may seem as if the M's have lowered the bar for themselves, but through all the detours they've made an album that sounds more like themselves than any previous work.
  4. Chicago’s favorite retro-pop indie quartet, the M’s take another serious step towards being a true career band with their third self-produced record and second for the always dependable Polyvinyl.
  5. On Real Close Ones, the M’s sound like a slightly older version of the band that made their first album. Sure they’re really good, but they're too pensive to make the step up to the big leagues.
  6. They mix in a little cool, fuzzy ambiance ("Papers"), a bit of throb and feedback ("Ultraviolent Men"), and some soul infusion ("How Could You") for a wonderfully spacious, energetic album that belongs right beside any of the others that may have influenced The M's.
  7. Under The Radar
    70
    There may be no new ground broken here, but The M’s excel at neo-classicism in a simultaneously fun and serious manner. [Summer 2008]

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