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Mar 1, 2016Yuck is a testament to the idea that music doesn’t need to be incredibly innovative to be original. They’re playing by the rules of catchy rock choruses as handed down by some of the more acclaimed ‘90s bands, but their confidence allows it all to sound like their own.
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MagnetMar 30, 2016No, the London band is never going to be called innovative, but the gusto with which it approaches those naked influences of Dinosaur Jr, Pavement and Sonic Youth--and the craftsmanship with which it does so--cracks through our cynical shells. [No. 129, p.61]
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Feb 29, 2016Unlike its predecessor, the new album is expressed with a confident ease rather than pent up frustration.
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Feb 22, 2016Though the London band don’t exactly attack in a fist-raised blaze of mega-riffs, they hit hard all the same with quick, sharp, and consistently executed blows of effortless songwriting.
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Apr 1, 2016This third batch has something to prove, and Bloom makes the most of it, stutter-riffing his best Toadies impression on “Hearts in Motion” and sneaking the timeless gorgeousness of Sebadoh’s “Too Pure” into “Down.”
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UncutFeb 29, 2016If their third album doesn't exactly do anything new in the field, it is undoubtedly well observed. [Apr 2016, p.82]
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Feb 29, 2016After Glow & Behold, the only thing Yuck seemed ready to do was break up and get day jobs; Stranger Things shows they weren't quite ready for that as it vaults them back into the noise pop/shoegaze conversation, where they seem poised to stay for a good long while.
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Feb 24, 2016Ultimately, Stranger Things sounds more like a band that are more comfortable with what they are doing.
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Mar 1, 2016For better or for worse, Yuck no longer sounds like a band trying too hard to eclipse its own past.
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Feb 25, 2016This album is a far cry from the 90’s American college-radio rock of their Blumberg-indebted debut, but, for a seemingly make or break record, Stranger Things just doesn’t really take enough risks.
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Mar 3, 2016While it occasionally points towards new and different paths that Yuck can follow, it also finds them returning to a comfort zone that may not be as comfortable for the listener.
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Mar 2, 2016Aside from flailing a bit at the end, the London group’s third full-length hits its mark.
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Feb 26, 2016The mild and tepid Swirling soon becomes rather repetitive, and Like A Moth gets stuck in its own saccharine, twee groove, but the majority of these eleven tracks find the band back on the right, fizzy, fuzzy, frazzled track.
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Feb 24, 2016There's an overemphasis on influences here that makes Stranger Things more recognizably likeable than imaginative.
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Q MagazineFeb 22, 2016There are enough decent moments here for this to represent a step back in the right direction. [Apr 2016, p.117]
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Feb 23, 2016Adequacy is a trait that fits Stranger Things well. It’s not a disappointment like Glow & Behold, but then it only occasionally manages to reach the heights of Yuck’s debut.
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Feb 29, 2016Where that album [Glow & Behold] felt like an expansion, albeit a minor one, Stranger Things feels like a retreat.
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Mar 9, 2016Frontman Max Bloom’s voice isn’t even that dissimilar from that of the man he replaced in 2013, but he’s lacking something that Blumberg clearly had in his arsenal to sharpen his band’s sound.
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Mar 17, 2016Yuck's sound soared from the start, each release sounding stellar--Stranger Things included--but a lack of novelty is rearing up.
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MojoFeb 22, 2016London's Yuck offer scrubbed-up take on the FX-drenched guitar pop of Pavement or MBV. [Apr 2016, p.96]
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Feb 22, 2016While the juxtaposition of upbeat music and melancholic lyrics has succeeded for artists from the Beatles to David Bowie, here such tactics, amid music that betrays so little originality, render these hackneyed emotional confessions nothing more than indulgent.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 10
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Mixed: 5 out of 10
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Negative: 1 out of 10
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Dec 28, 2016
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Aug 21, 2016