• Record Label: Altitude
  • Release Date: Oct 11, 2005
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11

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  1. Bailey
    Dec 18, 2005
    10
    A great CD -- reminds me of very early REM, with a dreamy, multilayered sound and amazing hooks. I've already had four songs on "repeat" -- it's been years since I bought a CD that made me do that.
  2. fernandov
    Nov 20, 2005
    10
    Para quem gosta de EELS, aqui tem uma versão mais. Muito interessante, uma bomba
  3. AndyS
    Nov 9, 2005
    7
    Good, but not as good as Emblems.
  4. matta
    Dec 28, 2005
    8
    Very fine album. He's compared by one reviewer to Nada Surf, but this is Stronger than Nada Surf's latest release. Really not a bad song, and a few really great ones (Halloween, Several Arrows Later). The people giving low marks are most likely a bunch of Sleater-Kinney, Hypermagic Mountain fans who don't want to admit to liking instrospective, quieter music because they Very fine album. He's compared by one reviewer to Nada Surf, but this is Stronger than Nada Surf's latest release. Really not a bad song, and a few really great ones (Halloween, Several Arrows Later). The people giving low marks are most likely a bunch of Sleater-Kinney, Hypermagic Mountain fans who don't want to admit to liking instrospective, quieter music because they are afraid of being labeled as pussies. Expand
  5. ChadS
    Feb 21, 2006
    9
    Matt Pond PA sounds like a less wussy-Toad the Wet Sprocket. If Pond sold out, he could easily have written "All I Want". I think the best track is "It is Safe". I can see the beach Pond is waxing melancholic about. There's more adventurous bands out there, but how is that Animal Collective album going to sound in twenty years? You're more likely to reach for "Several Arrows Later".
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Perhaps this slightly bland direction is one that Matt Pond PA was always headed making this record a totally expected arrival point. But somehow their earlier brand of chamber pop, full of lush strings, and Pond's cloying but touching lyrics seemed to promise something a little more than the pedestrian virtues of Several Arrows Later.
  2. Pond's songs are the alt-rock equivalent of what used to be called New Yorker short stories: subtly realized domestic epiphanies often involving tame nature imagery.
  3. Urb
    60
    A lush, relaxing listen. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.103]