- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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The album cements the band as a love-them-or-hate-them proposition, but the Fiery Furnaces remain true to themselves.
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Alternative PressAs exhausting as it is brilliant. [Dec 2005, p.202]
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It's tedious where there should be tension.
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BillboardThink of a visit to Nana's house reimagined as alt-Broadway musical theater. [29 Oct 2005]
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BlenderNot for all--or even most--tastes, the result is abrasive and weirdly haunting. [Nov 2005, p.135]
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The problem this time out isn’t a lack of interesting material, it’s that these aren’t lyrics, these aren’t songs, these are for the most part spoken word stories backed by some of the most horrific and baroque music ever recorded.
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Entertainment Weekly[The Grandmother's] spoken-word soliloquies only deepen Choir's too-clever-for-its-own-good impenetrability. [28 Oct 2005, p.89]
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Los Angeles TimesThere might be a compelling story in there, but when the Furnaces' songs come in to elaborate on her tales... it's all but impossible to figure out what's going on. [6 Nov 2005]
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MagnetOn Rehearsing My Choir, the Furnaces are just defiant because they can be, indulging every impulse but neglecting to make any of them even remotely compelling. [#70, p.96]
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MojoAs unique and poignant as a family bible. [Nov 2005, p.104]
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My feeling is that Rehearsing My Choir is an odd, initially indigestible album that is far more interesting than most people are willing to admit.
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Paste MagazineImaging you're listening to a radio play and let the story engage you, and you might find yourself hooked. [Dec 2005, p.108]
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As a think piece, Rehearsing My Choir is enormously engaging, but as a pop record, it's exhausting and fruitless.
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The first and possibly most damaging problem lies in the music, which lacks the focus, coherence, and development to be rewarding beyond a novelty listen.
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Thrilling prospect though it may be, the result is a disaster.
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Q MagazineThe twosome's sincere kitchen-sink music and lyrical pathos mean the tales of Chicago life unravel like a good Paul Auster novel. [Dec 2005, p.150]
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These prose-stuffed metasongs require concentrated listening. But the rewards are rich, the experience unique.
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Rehearsing My Choir is too self-consciously hip to be a twilight reflection on things past and is filled with personal asides only blood relatives can relate to.
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SpinWhether Eleanor echoes her grandmother or provides a less mature counterpoint, her gravity melds with Sarantos' gusto for a dissonance that's never entirely discordant. [Nov 2005, p.100]
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Admittedly, though it’s clunky and overwrought, the real problem isn’t that the story is tedious or that Olga’s voice is awful--it’s actually weirdly thrilling--it’s that the album simply doesn’t feel as well executed as the premise promises.
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The flickering narrative works to pull ears closer to the band's most wowing musical offering to date.
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An astonishing concept-album full of humour, tenderness and life-affirming spirit.
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The Fiery Furnaces have delivered another great American novel via guitars, drums, bells, and whistles.
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UncutIf last year's engrossing, infuriating Blueberry Boat revealed the Friedbergers as a uniquely strange and perversely ambitious proposition, Rehearsing My Choir, remarkably, trumps it, striking a chord of real feeling alongside the pell-mell fabulation. [Dec 2005, p.110]
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Under The RadarThe album is no less a triumph as it is a fantastic future family heirloom. That said, Rehearsing might test the patience of even longtime fans. [#11, p.106]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 105 out of 131
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Mixed: 4 out of 131
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Negative: 22 out of 131
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PaulApr 26, 2006A unique album, worked out better than i expected it to be but overall their least best record.
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GlennDJan 11, 2006
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SpencerMDec 11, 2005