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Feb 23, 2011The songs are deliberately loose and minimalist -- intricacy tends to get lost in the booming, resonant halls of a factory -- but the substance that remains is strong, potent stuff.
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UncutFeb 25, 2011The sounds on Smart Flesh may be muted, but there is power and daring in its pursuit of stillness. File under: a quiet Storm. [Mar 2011, p.84]
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MojoApr 6, 2011For all its romance, this is a record at the sharp end of mortality. [March 2011, p. 96]
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Q MagazineMar 1, 2011More downtempo delights from Rhode Islanders. [March 2011, p. 106]
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Feb 22, 2011There are few happy endings here, but the wounded have plenty of room to roam and waltz.
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Feb 22, 2011It's not all that troublesome, but it would be nice to hear the band stretch out beyond its rustic bubble just a bit.
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Feb 22, 2011It's the lyrics that make Smart Flesh truly shine.
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Apr 4, 2011Notes reverberate and gently die while voices float in the ether, creating a sense of reverence and calm for most of the album.
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Feb 23, 2011Joyous, pensive, cathartic and hymnal in equal measure, this is the human condition set to music.
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Feb 23, 2011Smart Flesh is a quiet, modest success, if a bit monochrome.
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Mar 1, 2011The only mis-step on the album is "Boeing 737", a pounding, splashy stomp whose brash incoherence perhaps disguises a commentary on the twin towers attacks. It seems brutish and crude set alongside the rest of the album, which otherwise has the kind of stylistic and atmospheric unity that reminds one of what albums can offer that no other format can match.
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Feb 22, 2011That ghostly sensibility dances perilously close to dirgelike in a few of the album's more droning, melancholic, and low-energy corners; but the band never lets the mood slacken beyond grasp, always offering a sharp vocal edge or mesmerizing interlude to keep listeners leaning in.
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Feb 22, 2011Although Providence has a noise-rock loft scene, the Low Anthem ended up working the quiet side of the street, coming up with a dead-earnest sound that lacks any overt recognition of the modern world.
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Feb 23, 2011Easy-going and mellifluous, songs built on the simplest of patterns.
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Feb 22, 2011The Low Anthem are desperately trying to say something, even if that message is not always crystal clear.
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Mar 28, 2011This is a good record, but I can't help thinking that The Low Anthem are on the verge of something great.
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Feb 22, 2011The soul-endangering threat of our current man-machine moment is unlikely to register.
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Feb 23, 2011The album's predominant mood is not glumness, it is togetherness, and it invokes images of storytelling, late nights, campfires, whiskey and beards. The stuff of men with things on their minds.
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Mar 14, 2011Smart Flesh won't grab you with big hooks or infectious grooves, but listen long enough, and it'll sink its teeth right in to you.
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Feb 22, 2011These exquisitely voiced musings on love, healing and mortality really hit the spot.
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Feb 23, 2011Smart Flesh won't just set many a lonely heart aflutter - it will stick around in the morning to make breakfast.
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Feb 22, 2011Welcome to The Low Anthem's Smart Flesh, where folk music doesn't need to be reinvented for it to come alive – just performed. If you're looking for a solid folk spooker to open the year, your search ends here.