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Red
by
Red Image
Metascore
60

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 22 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the sophomore album for the British indie pop rock band led by Fyfe Dangerfield.

Top Track

Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)
Much as you blame yourself, You can't be blamed for the way that you feel Had no example of a love that was even remotely real How can you understand... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. musicOMH.com
    100
    There's not one duff moment during the album's 50 minutes - it's pop music to be treasured, loved and listened to for years to come.
  2. Drowned In Sound
    80
    Red’s a grandiose statement of intent, crammed with aspirational symphonies that run the gambit of popular culture over the past 40 years without ever succumbing to grating pastiche.
  3. Q Magazine
    80
    This follow-up's newfound glossy production sheen suggests that is the intention [to move toward the mainstream]--but the creativity within is far from diluted. [Apr 2008, p.109]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. Dot Music
    60
    Time and time again, this patchy album is dragged down by obscenely flashy production, a surfeit of ideas that conspire only to sabotage the songs themselves and writ large across it all, Fyfe Dangerfield's interminable, platitudinous emoting.
  5. Pitchfork
    58
    Guillemots cram themselves into awkward fits, and Dangerfield has to squeeze the hardest--whether he's tying himself to a straightforward ballad instead of clamoring for the rooftops, or standing up for a fight when he's so much more comfortable slipping into a dream.
  6. AllMusic
    50
    Red is at its best when it mines the new wave/Europop of Level 42 and Ultravox, especially on the infectious 'Clarion,' but those moments are few and far between.
  7. Uncut
    40
    A huge disappointment.

See all 12 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 2 out of 4
  1. Derringer
    Apr 11, 2008
    9
    This is a wholly unique twist on the concept of a pop album. The songs are fun, melodic, inspiring, danceable, and never cliche... Guillemots This is a wholly unique twist on the concept of a pop album. The songs are fun, melodic, inspiring, danceable, and never cliche... Guillemots have potentially made the most forward thinking and exciting pop album of the year. If you are lookiing for more of the debut, you'll be disappointed, but I personally got annoyed with their unnecessary long tunes that meandered at times on the debut (I LOVED LoveSong and Trains to Brazil though).... Definitely NOT an album to pass up. It takes a few listens but the red meatball will eventually overtake you. :)… Collapse
  2. gideonosphere
    May 14, 2012
    5
    there are some tracks on this album that are...audacious. i'll give you that, but this one has its moments still when i can lose myselfthere are some tracks on this album that are...audacious. i'll give you that, but this one has its moments still when i can lose myself completely. i imagine the inconsistency of this record can be attributed to the fact that Fyfe only wrote a couple tracks off of Red. what disappoints me most about this record, however, is that what Fyfe did so well with his lyrics on Through the Windowpane - the flimsy, whimsical, hopeless romantic - is gone. this is angsty, and it doesn't suit Guillemots. the bold, loud, clangy, boisterous music doesn't fit them either.… Expand
  4. KenK.
    Apr 11, 2008
    0
    It became not pop.
  5. Riccardinho9
    Apr 15, 2008
    0
    Possibly the most horrific second album in the history of recorded music. After Through the Windowpane, this album is like going out to a Possibly the most horrific second album in the history of recorded music. After Through the Windowpane, this album is like going out to a swanky restaurant you know and love and finding yourself in a motorway cafe somewhere on the M6. God only knows what they were thinking. How to end our career in one simple move?… Expand

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