• Record Label: Nonesuch
  • Release Date: Mar 27, 2007
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. By eschewing the careworn vulnerability so favoured by many female artists, Veirs allows her remarkable songcraft and ornate use of language to shine.
  2. Uncut
    80
    [It] strikes a finer balance between ['Year Of Meteors'] and the magic folk realism of her earlier work. [Apr 2007, p.116]
  3. Although Saltbreakers may have less easy-to-find melodic hooks than its predecessor, it certainly doesn’t lack much in the rich eclecticism stakes.
  4. Veirs here is at the peak of her game, and as refreshing as a lungful of oxygen.
  5. Saltbreakers is a wonderful album – a little glossy on the surface maybe, but saved from preciousness by its intelligence, restraint and soaring images.
  6. The spellbinding quality of Veir's sharp, chilly vocals - at their most powerful on the tracks Black Butterfly and Don't Lose Yourself - stops it sounding like something a Church of England vicar thought up.
  7. On “Saltbreakers,” as on her previous albums, her inner thoughts are inseparable from the natural world. [9 Apr 2007]
  8. Saltbreakers is exceptionally strong, and it shows Veirs has more than just poetic whimsy up her sleeve.
  9. She succeeds on a level that was always just out of reach; the whole thing feels organic and natural.
  10. Mojo
    80
    This remains at its essence an album of beguiling, rain-splashed intimacy. [May 2007, p.106]
  11. Upon first listen, Saltbreakers feels significantly less chilly than 2005's sparse Year of Meteors, but further spins reveal a dark core that radiates warmth only intermittently.
  12. Veirs’ songs are content to be four-minute pop numbers that exude hooks and instrumental magic; her album is content to be a collection of these songs, with no big finish or three-act dramatic arc.
User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. thrownfree
    May 13, 2007
    8
    Here's the problem with the pitchfork review: The writer, by his own admission, decided before he gave the album a chance--or even, Here's the problem with the pitchfork review: The writer, by his own admission, decided before he gave the album a chance--or even, probably, a listen--that it was imitative. It then goes on to fulfill his expectations. So, yeah, let's not even try to be disinterested. I found the album less obviously outstanding than Year of Meteors, but there's much to love. Far from "adult contemporary" instrumentation (as the pitchfork reviewer states), the musicianship is infectious, articulate, but never hints at either melodrama or a sterile, "boxed" studio sound. Though I loved YofM, I found some of Veirs' lyrics overwrought. Lyrically, this album is stronger, the images somehow more direct and less fussy. Full Review »
  2. Dan
    May 3, 2007
    8
    Has anyone noticed that Veirs' best song to date and the best song I heard this year thus far is on this album? "Drink Deep" is Has anyone noticed that Veirs' best song to date and the best song I heard this year thus far is on this album? "Drink Deep" is absolutely stunning! Full Review »
  3. CaptainWacky
    Apr 29, 2007
    7
    Ha ha, suck shit Pitchfork! Wrong again! I haven't actually been madly in love with much that Laura's done since her early EPs, but Ha ha, suck shit Pitchfork! Wrong again! I haven't actually been madly in love with much that Laura's done since her early EPs, but it's still good to see some chicks on the bench. Keep up the good work, toots. Full Review »