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  • Release Date:
Spokes Image
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: The fourth album for the London-based duo of Ed Handley and Andy Turner contains ten new tracks that promise to recall the darker mood of their work together in the Black Dog.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 10
  2. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. This is a disc that springs to life under closer inspection but also serves quite capably as background music -- the kind that draws in casual listeners and gets them asking questions.
  2. And while it is a bit less corrugated than some of its early work, it packs a bite that's far more venomous than any of the sound-alikes that continue to nip at Plaid's heels.
  3. Mojo
    80
    Their best in years. [Dec 2003, p.118]
  4. Rest Proof Clockwork and Not for Threes are both better LPs for the long haul, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything particularly wrong with Spokes.
  5. At times its earnestness and self-conscious attempts to prove its own expertise make it seem more like the work of a surly, awkward late-adolescent.
  6. Indeed, there are some dull moments on Spokes, but plucking tracks from the record and turning them around under the magnifying glass probably misses what Plaid intended (this one seems meant to be listened to in succession).
  7. Nearly all of this territory has already been plotted with more detail and flair on Handley and Turner's first three records.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. TyS
    Oct 30, 2003
    8
    Total brilliance from beginning to end !!. They have really excelled with this release with much of the instrumentation arking back to their Total brilliance from beginning to end !!. They have really excelled with this release with much of the instrumentation arking back to their Black Dog days ... This is a must not miss if you prefer your music complicated and melodic.. Expand
  2. BoB
    Oct 24, 2003
    6
    Buy 'Double Figure' their best album by far. Spokes has the same unmelodic melodies as their album 'Not for threes' Buy 'Double Figure' their best album by far. Spokes has the same unmelodic melodies as their album 'Not for threes' although being more mature, somehow has a certain flatness. Collapse
  3. clackerswinkelplop
    Nov 14, 2003
    0
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