Strapped
- The Soft Pack
- Band Name: The Soft Pack
- Record Label: Mexican Summer
- Release Date: Sep 25, 2012
- Critic Score
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Dec 4, 201285The band has simply folded its past into a bigger, richer whole. [No. 93, p.58]
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Nov 27, 201250Strapped is an album that seems to both highlight the Soft Pack's strengths and glaringly reveal their limitations to this point.
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Oct 29, 201270Strapped is a marked maturation from their San Diego start five years ago.
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Oct 23, 201260Mostly Strapped is unified by a fuggy atmosphere, likeably odd guitar details and some immediate choruses. [Nov 2012, p.105]
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Oct 16, 201260It is a straightforward and solid return from a band who sound unsure whether to stick or twist.
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Oct 8, 201260Strapped's thirty-something minutes of southern California rock doesn't turn the page on anything new, but is still a worthy listen. The album holds true to the band's striped-down signature sound from their last two albums, with a sprinkling of a few stand out tracks.
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Oct 3, 201270That their kitchen-sink approach yielded as many wins as it did on Strapped bodes very well for The Soft Pack, oddly enough presenting a band that has proven it's more than its record collection, and possesses a heretofore unseen amount of creative restlessness.
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Oct 1, 201270Uncomplicated, Spinto Band-ish jangles like 'Second Look', 'Tallboy' and 'Everything I Know' plough casually and happily along without a care in the world, very much like the band themselves.
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Oct 1, 201280Strapped is a significant step forward from their debut; far more expansive and ambitious.
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Sep 28, 201270Fuzz and reverb are everywhere, but The Soft Pack are also refreshingly unafraid of the sax solo. [Nov 2012, p.81]
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Sep 28, 201270On [Strapped] they've toned down their trademark do-or-die spirit and returned with something far more considered and refined.
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Sep 26, 201278While these graduates are busy looking for a nail on which to hang their new diplomas, make sure you've got a needle to play their new record.
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Sep 26, 201270The Soft Pack's knack for a no-tassels hook is what ends up making Strapped worthwhile, and it works best when they tighten the screws and keep it concise.
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Sep 25, 201250For a band who made their name on straightforward, meat-and-potatoes indie pop, Strapped is all over the place.
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Sep 25, 201270These varied sounds signal a growth in the band, one that will ultimately save the Soft Pack from forever being stuck playing angsty teen music.
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Sep 25, 201268Strapped isn't groundbreaking, especially by the standards The Soft Pack have set for themselves.
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Sep 24, 201270The fun carries all the way until the album's lengthy psychedelic jam, "Captain Ace," which bursts with wild saxophone and shows how to capture a brilliant act of Tape. [Oct 2012, p.92]
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Sep 24, 201270They may still be a work in progress, but that progress thus far is demonstrative of an increasingly innovative band, one working too hard to slump.
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Sep 24, 201268Long and lush isn't a bad look for the Soft Pack, so long as they're keeping the beat.
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Sep 24, 201270Strapped isn't a bad album so much as a strangely scattered one, revealing the Soft Pack caught between delivering what they're known for and what they might like to become.
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