Swing Lo Magellan
- Dirty Projectors
- Band Name: Dirty Projectors
- Record Label: Domino
- Release Date: Jul 10, 2012
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Jul 10, 201291By the dazzlingly innovative and heartfelt record's end, the band has worked in a bit of everything it has to offer, and offered it with winning sincerity.
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Jul 12, 201290The album is a melting pot of so many brilliant musical perspectives, which could only be channelled by a band with a gleeful, wide-eyed fascination with the possibilities of their music. And they succeed in their knowing but expertly-delivered goal: to sound like no other band out there.
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Jul 9, 201290The Dirty Projectors' best album by a mile holds that balance, all magnificent wobble, no collapse.
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Jul 9, 201290Wild, wooly, and willfully chaotic.
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Jul 3, 201290Swing Lo Magellan affords generous breathing space to Dirty Projectors' music: a context in which new levels of unpretentious eloquence positively flourish.
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Jul 17, 201289There is so much to both genuinely appreciate and enjoy on Swing Lo Magellan that it makes you wonder why these have to sometimes be exclusive ways to experience an album.
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Jul 11, 201288Dirty Projectors still get itchy at the prospect of sleek surfaces, and their uneasiness is a thrill to behold.
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Jul 9, 201288The band's least ornate batch of songs to date builds upon Longstreth's most direct and identifiable lyrics ever. Which means that Dirty Projectors have upped their emotional and structural accessibility all at once.
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Jul 27, 201284The channel still churns on Swing Lo Magellan, but Longstreth has built sturdy songs with solid foundations here, trapping his confusion in a container.
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Aug 8, 201280Sometimes brilliant, often infuriating, it's a must-check nonetheless.
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Jul 12, 201280The Dirty Projectors are still fantastic weirdos making fantastically weird music, but Swing Lo Magellan humanizes them by letting you see through to their heartstrings.
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Jul 12, 201280The band certainly doesn't sound one hundred percent confident (or even comfortable) moving into more accessible territory, but their fidgetiness results in one of the most intriguing listens of the year.
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Jul 12, 201280Every element is given space to shine--a nice break from the overproduced bedroom-recording sound that's become standard in indie rock.
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Jul 11, 201280It's the sound of Dirty Projectors just being themselves and fully justifying the royalty status Longstreth and Co. now enjoy.
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Jul 10, 201280The source of Swing Lo Magellan's charm, for it truly is a charming collection, is that it's a record that doesn't try be anything other than exactly what it is.
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Jul 9, 201280It may not be for everyone, but it's evidence that there are still some restless minds out there.
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Jul 9, 201280On the band's gorgeous sixth album, there's a new directness to the songs.
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Jul 9, 201280Swing Lo Magellan is an album that will break hearts, bring joy, and deliver emotional notes that few others could.
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Jul 9, 201280What really shines through the most on Magellan are the qualities that can be obscured when all the attention is paid to Dirty Projectors' obvious proficiency and omnivorous tastes: their enthusiasm and love for music. No matter how weird and challenging things might get, there's a feeling of joy that's palpable in the songs here.
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Jul 9, 201280Swing Lo Magellan packs as many different ideas as ever into a new set of songs while offering perhaps the clearest and most satisfying picture yet of what the band is about.
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Jul 6, 201280It's pretty f***ing awesome.
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Jul 5, 201280For the first time, Longstreth's words offer real value rather than verbose decoration. [Aug 2012, p.81]
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Jul 3, 201280This is an album that seems to spring from an indoor world of cerebral textures and bedroom experiments, a headphone odyssey for an era in which the rock gig has become a corporate-sponsored burlesque.
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Jul 2, 201280These are some of the most challenging songs in the band's catalog, yet they're more approachable than ever before. [Aug 2012, p.88]
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Jul 2, 201280The result is an album that is far less-crowded than previous works and one that, on the whole, feels suitably bucolic.
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Jul 2, 201280Swing Lo Magellan, then--deadly serious even at its most eccentric, wilfully awkward even at its most accessible, dense and intricate even at its most freewheeling. Same as it ever was.
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Jul 2, 201280The best moments of Swing Lo Magellan transcend whatever intentions their author may have had, as amazing songs are wont to do.
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Sep 13, 201278Dirty Projectors has never done so much with so little, a rare feat reiterated by the disarming, insistent standout, "Gun Has No Trigger."
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Jul 3, 201275It should be thrillingly anarchic; instead, it just meanders.
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Jul 3, 201275When Longstreth uses his newfound focus to shake up his methods... the results are often startling.
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Jul 27, 201273They have it in them to write great pop music or truly important experimental music, but Dirty Projectors have to decide where they want to end up before they start.
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Jul 18, 201270Swing Lo Magellen sounds forced and cluttered... highlights a dearth of skill when it comes to self-editing. [No.89 p.54]
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Jul 13, 201270On "Irresponsible Tune," leader Dave Longstreth harnesses the magic of bygone vocal groups like the Orioles and the Comedian Harmonists, singing about "a world crooked, f***ed up and wrong" and, briefly, makes it right.
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Jul 12, 201270Swing Lo Magellan features some of the Dirty Projectors' most straightforward pop songs to date.
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Jul 12, 201270After exploring some most unlikely corners, Swing Lo Magellan is arguably its best at its simplest.
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Jul 9, 201270[Swing Lo Magellan] is instantly likeable. It makes perfect sense, but unravels into nonsense and complexity on second glance.
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Jul 2, 201270While some listeners might find the Projectors' rather knowing idiosyncracy off-putting and smug, there are songs here that suggest the band has finally found the formula that finely balances its well-meaning musical intellectualism with actual pop songs.
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Jul 25, 201260It's the amped-up riff in the middle of Offspring Are Blank that best sums up their playful approach. They often flex their muscles without feeling the need to land a killer blow. [Aug 2012, p.97]
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Jul 24, 201260More often than not the group sound like they're going through the motions. [Jul 2012, p.57]
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Jul 19, 201260Swing Lo works best at arm's length, admired like a diamond rather than held like a carbon-based life-form. [Aug 2012, p.91]
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Jul 10, 201240Simply put, the music on Swing Lo can't support its great ideas. To quote Dylan, "a song is anything that can walk by itself." Maybe time will prove me completely and utterly wrong, but as far as I can tell, nothing on Swing Lo walks by itself.