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- Summary: The sophomore album for the London-based band was produced by Danger Mouse.
- Record Label: Wall of Sound
- Genre(s): Indie, Rock
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 8
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Mixed: 2 out of 8
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Negative: 1 out of 8
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It's not what you'd call a forward-looking record--these people have a more than passing familiarity with the early 70s work of David Bowie, and are in thrall to the folky psychedelia of a few years earlier than that--but it's expertly executed and swooningly gorgeous.
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Let's hope they carry on with that form of expression, as Replica Sun Machine has created an early blast of summer sunshine--playful, majestic, reflective and content, all in the same record.
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If anything, though, what Replica Sun Machine calls to mind is a previous attempt to meld aesthetics from about ten years back, the Beta Band's "Hot Shots II"--it's not a question of exact similarity by any means, but there's a similarly easygoing feel in the arrangements and the beats, something that invites drift and a steady crunch in equal measure.
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If anything, it’s the failure to rise above its component parts and create a unique and recognizable sound that keeps Replica Sun Machine from being the breakthrough album this promising trio deserves.
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Quietly bucking the trend are The Shortwave Set, whose follow-up to 2005’s The Debt Collection confounds convention by actually being pretty good.
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Under The RadarWhile certain tracks capture a melding of The Clientele's lovely melancholy and Southern California psych-pop undertones, the bulk of the album suffers from an an impenetrable mix that simply has too much going on sonically to let the band's sunny songs shine through. [Spring 2009, p.68]
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Replica Sun Machine is an exceedingly simple thing--with tunes so familiar-feeling to be easily ignorable--but it's presented with a false sense of intricacy, gussied up and disguised as something more than it really is.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 1
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Mixed: 0 out of 1
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Negative: 0 out of 1
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sandlinesJun 8, 2009
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