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Summer in Abaddon is an album of small, but hardly insignificant pleasures, and it may be Pinback's finest work yet.
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Arguably their best record yet, a logical and accessible realization of a sound they've been developing for more than six years.
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Pinback can't be faulted for trying to capture a larger audience with their new record, because the fact of the matter is they're a good band with tremendous potential and ability. But for fans that have been following the group for some time, you'd like to see them get there already, and get on with it.
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UncutFor all their deft intricacies, they're somewhat characterless. [Dec 2004, p.140]
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Mojo[Pinback's] blend of warm and wistful is almost impossible to resist. [Jan 2005, p.104]
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New Musical Express (NME)The stuff of jagged, ornate artistes living in a weird pop monsterland with defiantly anti-wacky lyrics. [13 Nov 2004, p.57]
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Under The RadarThere is some pabulum filler... But Abaddon's best moments are as good as Pinback's ever been. [#8, p.111]
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A triumph of intense weirdness and cosy warmth.
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The cleaner, more direct approach both helps and hurts. Without at least some sonic kink, Pinback drifts toward the pleasant but undistinguished; its core sound is too rarefied to snag the common rock fan.
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Entertainment WeeklyThese catchy songs are so sonically enthralling, you could call them heavenly. [15 Oct 2004, p.72]
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Alternative PressSounds like the updated fourth side of Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On. [Nov 2004, p.142]
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While not really better or worse than their previous albums, Summer in Abaddon is at least pretty good -- more of exactly what fans wanted.
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Pinback is among a select group of indie rock bands who excel at making incredibly nuanced pop music full of graceful layers the intrepid listener can delight in sorting out.
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FilterPinback is particularly good at harnessing a laid-back vibe that ultimately soothes much more than it disappoints. [#12, p.101]
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While Summer in Abaddon features Pinbackās by now trademarked sound and cryptic lyrics with a few nice developments, it falls victim to a sort of malaise of consistently indistinguishable mid-tempo rockers on the second half of an album that starts very strongly.
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Falls a few yards short of essential listening.
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It's quite a treat to hear the duo create such refreshingly original music with rock's "standard" instruments.
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Combining dramatic, ethereal pop vocals with moody guitar and piano theatrics, Summer in Abaddon recalls a tighter, smoothed-out Built to Spill, or maybe a Dismemberment Plan reunion.
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Summer in Abaddon delivers an all-inclusive perfection that sets it apart from any other record this year.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 32
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Mixed: 0 out of 32
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Negative: 3 out of 32
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Jul 15, 2023
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Nov 13, 2020an absolutely perfect and beautiful album from start to finish, just buy it you won't be disappointed, 10/10 doesn't seem quite high enough
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Oct 11, 2011