- Critic score
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- By date
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Release couldn't be more lovely if it tried.
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Eventually, the tunes fall into place. What never materialize in sufficient number are the billowing climaxes and cutting remarks that mark their best albums, meaning most of them.
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The Boys unleash some of their most sublime and accessible material in years.
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Release sounds at once like a last gasp and a reinvention, which makes it all the more moving.
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This is a long soft sigh of an album, suggesting not a sudden relief of pressure but just a pleasant exclamation of contentment.
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A plaintive 10-song set, and the group's most consistent album since 1993's classic Very.
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Q MagazineThe new "proper band" architecture well suits these touching, often funny songs. [Apr 2002, p.119]
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BlenderEqual parts wit, heartbreak, cool... and potential commercial suicide. [Jun/Jul 2002, p.112]
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The group's most consistently rewarding album since 1993's "Very."
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MixerRelease slowly unfolds with a sparse elegance, resonating as the detached dance-popsmiths' finest complete album in a decade. [June 2002, p.90]
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Admirers of melodic craft and pointed poetry -- even those stricken with synth-pop allergies -- should consider Release.
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UncutThe album stands or falls by the seductiveness of its atmospheres and the memorability of its hooks--and here, it must be said, Release fails to imprint itself, leaving an impression mainly of dejected weariness. [May 2002, p.95]
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MojoHalf of Release feels like an old routine -- looming melancholy and not-quite-cheery disco by the pound. [Apr 2002, p.108]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 19
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Mixed: 2 out of 19
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Negative: 1 out of 19
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May 29, 2018
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Dec 14, 2017
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Oct 13, 2017