Repave - Volcano Choir
Repave Image
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.8

Universal acclaim- based on 21 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • 10
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
  • 0

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. The A.V. Club
    Sep 3, 2013
    91
    The album remains surprisingly cohesive, effectively splitting the difference between the fussed-over refinement of Bon Iver and the sometimes unfocused experimentation of Volcano Choir’s first album, 2009’s Unmap. It’s a balancing act that pays off.
  2. Absolute Punk (Staff reviews)
    Sep 4, 2013
    83
    Repave is integral to retroactively understanding Vernon's canon and also establishes a path forward from the runaway success of his past.
  3. Slant Magazine
    Aug 29, 2013
    80
    It's an abstract and occasionally disjointed album that ultimately finds a rewarding balance, both sonically and lyrically, between the obscure and the deeply personal.
  4. Beats Per Minute (formerly One Thirty BPM)
    Sep 12, 2013
    80
    The limits of Vernon’s imagination and drive have yet to be truly tested, and based on the size of the sounds that he’s summoning here, the ceiling isn’t even in his sights yet.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Sep 11, 2013
    75
    Repave rallies Vernon's swelling heartbreak, wind-chime wanderings, and nutty lyrics into robust, chorus-and-all songs. [6 Sep 2013, p.75]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. New Musical Express (NME)
    Sep 3, 2013
    70
    Apart from the weirdly out-of-place vocoder moment on ‘Comrade’, it’s a layered, lush and lovely eight-track affair.
  7. Rolling Stone
    Sep 9, 2013
    50
    Highlights "Comrade" and "Alaskans" are abstract but inspiringly muscular, while other songs drift into panoramas of tentative guitar lines, distant whooshing sounds and Vernon's wounded falsetto singing couplets not even he would dare make sense of.

See all 25 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. isatler3
    Sep 3, 2013
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I was fourteen when I got my first listen of Bon Iver. Their self entitled album took my brain for ransom. 'For Emma, Forever Ago' made me cry like a little girl. Front-man Justin Vernon's latest work as Volcano Choir did both of the aforementioned, and then some. Each song is its own story, its own emotional journey. Go buy this album so that people like Justin Vernon and his fellow Volcano Choir-er's never stop doing what they do.… Expand
  2. Derz
    Sep 3, 2013
    9
    Justin continues amazing with this project. But it's not just his vocals and lyrics that make this project great. There is some truly impressive, unique music on here that make it stand out as one of the best albums of 2013.… Expand
  3. SimpleMethod
    Sep 5, 2013
    9
    Repave is a great album. I really enjoyed hearing Justin Vernon again after being deprived of Bon Iver for so long. The best tracks are Dancepack, Byegone, and Comrade, but the other 5 are still a great. My favorite album of 2013 so far.… Expand
  4. schlabach
    Sep 8, 2013
    9
    Repave is great. I just recently got my first taste of volcano choir after listening to Bon Iver for quite some time and I loved it!. This was everything I had anticipated. This is a must listen!… Expand
  5. ZacharyMatson
    Sep 14, 2013
    8
    With Volcano Choir we don't quite get the unique, sorrowing, flavor of despair that we ironically love with Vernon's Bon Iver. But the beauty of the hooks and choruses will show you that Vernon and friends are more than just a side project.… Expand

Current Music Releases

Full List »
96 Sound System [Box Set]
96 The Warner Bros. Years [Box Set]
92 Sunbather
91 Higher! [Box Set]
91 Master
89 Is Survived By
89 Loud City Song
89 Silver Bell
88 In Utero [20th Anniversary Edition]
88 Your Turn
88 The RCA Albums Collection
87 Southeastern
87 All Hail West Texas [Reissued]
87 Random Access Memories
87 The Blackest Beautiful
87 Annie Up
87 American Ride
87 Innocence is Kinky
87 The Island Years [Box Set]
86 Made in California [Box Set]
All Current Music »