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Jun 24, 2013Thanks to their actual growth as artists, it may be their best yet.
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Oct 4, 2013Soft Will, a polished, richly layered trip, even if it never fully arrives.
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Jul 1, 2013Soft Will is certainly not as immediately infectious as Smith Westerns’ previous outings, but that does not make it a weaker album. There are still many injections of fun in the wordless gang vocals and theatrical guitar solos.
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Aug 9, 2013Soft Will is certainly pleasant enough (which shouldn’t really be what you’re striving for with a rock album), and I’m sure is being hailed by indie taste makers everywhere who like their rock on the sterile side.
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Jun 27, 2013In addition to sharpening the lyrical content, Soft Will has some of the group’s complex and multifaceted bits of rock assemblage. There’s a confidence and control to the playing on this album.
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Jul 8, 2013Soft Will is the perfect summer record, hazy and ill-defined and hard to remember but oh-so-euphoric.
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Jun 12, 2013The subject matter gives depth to the record, but sometimes it feels like Smith Westerns are filling in templates instead of writing songs.
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Jun 20, 2013Soft Will marks Smith Westerns moving into another realm of quality and experimentation, and, to put it quite simply, this album is just a complete pleasure to listen to.
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Jun 19, 2013This record is an excellent evolution for the band and is a long way away from the good times that were seen on tracks such as ‘Weekend’.
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Entertainment WeeklyJun 21, 2013The quietly splendid Soft unspools an effortless mix of sleepy glam and swooning pop. [28 Jun 2013]
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Jun 28, 2013Smith Westerns have never sounded so comfortable in their own skin.
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Jun 12, 2013It’s not immediately remarkable but certainly hum-worthy, growing on a listener like flowers blooming after a long winter and timidly warming to the sun again.
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MagnetJun 18, 2013Three cheers aren't enough. [No.99, p.59]
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Jun 24, 2013Soft Will marks a further refinement of Smith Westerns’ sound, resulting in one of the year’s most straightforwardly enjoyable indie-rock records.
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Jun 24, 2013There’s a lot to love about music that’s as head over heels in love with youth as Soft Will is.
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Jun 26, 2013Soft Will won’t enter the annals as album of the decade, but it showcases the tools and talent to make it happen one day.
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Jun 27, 2013Smith Westerns have proven themselves adept chameleons and excel in their new style. It’s just tough not to miss the old one.
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Jun 25, 2013Even if this sudden maturity results in deeper sounds, it doesn’t always result in deeper songs.
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Jun 12, 2013Few groups do wistfully melodic trad-rock any better right now. Smith Westerns haven’t only not burned out, they’re a budding institution.
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Jun 27, 2013Soft Will, like previous Smith Western albums, still brims with hooks but it never quite resolves if it’s still just good-time summer pop, dark-night-of-the-soul rumination or some sort of Summerteeth-esque middle ground.
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Jul 3, 2013Making music this fuzzy and wonderful is a notable feat. Making tunes that make you want to jump into a time-travelling DeLorean and materialise in yester-year, desperate to reenact the same wanton mistakes that you made the first time round? That’s a real achievement.
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Jun 25, 2013On their third album, they move far away from their garage-rock starting point and construct an expertly lyrical world of yearning and insinuation.
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Jul 10, 2013It's a lovely place that Soft Will fashions here, but it sounds hesitant about pulling you in, perhaps because its creators are secretly concerned that you'll realize you aren't really going anywhere.
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Jun 25, 2013The tempered songs of Soft Will, however, don’t feel thoughtfully restrained as much as deflated of enthusiasm.
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Jun 12, 2013It’s a compelling story; through industry difficulties and growing pains, comes a lovesick, loveable and brilliant album.
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Jun 12, 2013For all its faults, the heart and maturity at the centre of Soft Will feels more vital and important than their showy genre tourism ever did.
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Jun 24, 2013All of the delicate, precious tom buildups that segue into invariably lofty choruses, all laced with the same pining slide guitars, overlay the record with a strummy, mid-tempo delirium that sets in once the considerable swagger of the first three tracks wears off.
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Under The RadarJun 13, 2013Everything on Soft Will is ringing, open, alive; there are croon-along choruses buoying every song. [Jun-Jul 2013, p.90]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 18
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Mixed: 0 out of 18
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Negative: 0 out of 18
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Aug 22, 2014