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Sep 4, 2013Repave is integral to retroactively understanding Vernon's canon and also establishes a path forward from the runaway success of his past.
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Sep 3, 2013Repave is anything but showy. It's a pretty type of album that washes over you, made up of slow burners that melt like hot wax.
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Alternative PressAug 29, 2013It's songs seem somewhat aimless at times, but Repave is worth the journey for its riving consistency and moments of hook-laden greatness. [Oct 2013, p.94]
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Sep 12, 2013The 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.
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Oct 17, 2013It’s a balance of brainy introspection and communal joy--hard to do but easy to listen to.
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Sep 4, 2013These songs demonstrate the absolute best of both of Volcano Choir’s sides, as well as the album’s way of operating in waves: washing over everything with vicious crashes, then peacefully receding, smoothly repaving everything behind them.
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Sep 3, 2013The fact that Vernon’s voice is so distinctive means it’s difficult to distinguish this from his Bon Iver work yet there’s more than enough shimmering beauty here to get excited about.
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Sep 3, 2013Despite the obvious love with which the album's been assembled, there's no denying that Broken Social Scene have been doing this sort of thing for much longer and with more success.
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Entertainment WeeklySep 11, 2013Repave rallies Vernon's swelling heartbreak, wind-chime wanderings, and nutty lyrics into robust, chorus-and-all songs. [6 Sep 2013, p.75]
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Sep 10, 2013Repave is an album that crackles, sparkles and swoons in all the right places.
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Sep 3, 2013Repave is not just an album created in the interim of Bon Iver releases, but a project that weaves something together that has been there all along. In that sense, the album is both unfettered and cinematic.
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MojoSep 19, 2013For all its cryptic lyrics and melodic complexities, the revelation it constantly seems to promise never quite arrives, but repave remains a grand gesture. [Oct 2013, p.95]
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Aug 30, 2013Sounding more like Bon Iver than Volcano Choir’s own debut, this offering will surely appease Vernon’s fans most; while it deviates rather sharply from Unmap, there are occasional moments that recall the band in its infancy but it is clear that the four years since the debut arrived have resulted in the band’s evolution--and they are all the better for it.
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Sep 3, 2013Apart from the weirdly out-of-place vocoder moment on ‘Comrade’, it’s a layered, lush and lovely eight-track affair.
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Sep 4, 2013All songs on Repave begin quietly and almost none stay that way for long, so when those crescendos hit, you’re supposed to envision waves crashing on cold, barren outcroppings, white mist spraying as seabirds take majestic flight.
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Sep 23, 2013At this point in time, Volcano Choir has made it clear that despite what the scattershot structure of Unmap may have indicated upon its release, this project is for real. Whether it remains on the musical radar for years to come remains to be seen.
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Sep 3, 2013Volcano Choir’s second album is filled with memorable hooks, hummable melodies and arena-worthy choruses.
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Sep 9, 2013Highlights "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.
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Aug 29, 2013It's an abstract and occasionally disjointed album that ultimately finds a rewarding balance, both sonically and lyrically, between the obscure and the deeply personal.
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Sep 9, 2013What makes Repave different is that it’s the result of multiple creative minds at work, and that synergy is what makes the record so invigorating.
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Sep 3, 2013The 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.
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Aug 30, 2013A daring, self-assured statement by a band who have finally figured out just what a special thing they have created with Volcano Choir, but still aren’t aware of where it’s going to take them next.
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Sep 23, 2013Volcano Choir puts Mr. Vernon’s voice and words up front and builds something like songs around them, often with crescendos marching toward full-scale choruses--enough to make the often inscrutable lyrics sound passionate enough to be worth puzzling out.
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Sep 6, 2013Largely, Repave demonstrates that the collaboration between these Wisconsinites remains quite fruitful, yielding several songs that rival the finest moments in their respective catalogues.
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UncutAug 29, 2013This record has all the earmarks of Vernon's next big thing. [Oct 2013, p.69]
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Aug 29, 2013The results are remarkable. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.94]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 44 out of 46
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Mixed: 1 out of 46
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Negative: 1 out of 46
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Sep 3, 2013
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Mar 28, 2014
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Sep 14, 2013