The Carpenter
- The Avett Brothers
- Band Name: The Avett Brothers
- Record Label: Republic / Rre
- Release Date: Sep 11, 2012
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Sep 10, 201291It's a harmonious, cohesive album - like hope and regret all shaken up in a mason jar.
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Oct 9, 201289Although the Avett Brothers can't seem to decide whether they're introspective folkies or a big rock act, The Carpenter hits the right chords in such a manner that no one will likely care.
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Sep 18, 201283While a magnum opus would be compelling, The Carpenter's slight inward turn and few great songs may be enough for now.
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Nov 21, 201280The Carpenter's appeal lies in its gentle tempos and heartstring-tugging melodies. [Dec 2012, p.100]
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Nov 13, 201280Ultimately it's The Avett Brothers' innate ability to deliver killer tunes and present them in an engaging fashion that connects them to a vintage pedigree of classic Americana artists, from Crosby, Stills & Nash and Neil Young onwards, that seduces you from track one.
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Nov 12, 201280If the band can let go of their younger selves completely, that masterpiece will be theirs.
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Nov 7, 201280While the album does weigh heavily on its dark themes--possibly too much so at times--The Avett Brothers have never sounded better than they do on The Carpenter.
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Sep 12, 201280Overall this is a meditative collection that eloquently expresses a great deal of uncomfortable feelings few other songwriters are capable of addressing.
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Sep 11, 201280It's this penchant for playing with contrast--between light and dark, comedy and tragedy, hard and soft, fast and slow--and their ease with switching gears between the romps and soliloquies that shines on The Carpenter, perhaps stronger than on any of their previous releases.
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Sep 12, 201275What we're left with is an album that sounds like something of an identity crisis. It's far from a total loss and there is much here that is definitely worth revisiting in that old reliable Avett Brothers sort of way.
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Sep 12, 201270The Carpenter is strong from top to bottom.
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Sep 11, 201270They've become Auto-Tune-less pop stars, and The Carpenter will only brighten their shine.
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Sep 11, 201270Good storytelling, the brothers' distinctive vocal lobs and a pleasant combo of banjo, bass, strings and both acoustic and electric guitar [are still present]. But with so many of the rough edges buffed away, there aren't as many nooks and crannies in which listeners can embed themselves, making it more difficult to become emotionally attached to The Carpenter.
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Sep 10, 201270The Avett Brothers aren't rewriting the book, they're just translating it for a new generation.
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Sep 10, 201270There's no shortage of catchy, bopping crowd pleasers on The Carpenter, and the Avetts churn them out with gusto and pride.
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Sep 10, 201265Too many of the other songs feel starved of that love, though.
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Nov 30, 201260The brothers [are] as painfully earnest as ever. [Oct/Nov 2012, p.128]
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Nov 21, 201260The result is a trifle confusing. [Dec 2012, p.85]
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Nov 9, 201260The Carpenter isn't a total dud, because the Avetts are so skilled with a melody, but the plain-speaking has turned to clunkiness.
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Nov 5, 201260The Avetts are clearly happiest when they're miserable. Which is fine, if you're in that kind of mood.
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Sep 14, 201260The Carpenter, like many pieces of art, is a record that becomes more relatable with age and, most frighteningly, loss. For those of us that have been lucky thus far, we'll have to wait and see.
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Sep 13, 201260The North Carolina natives mix the boisterousness with the balladry well, while delivering image-evoking lyrics in between.
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Oct 26, 201250Pleasant but faintly drippy folk-pop. [Dec 2012, p.65]
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Nov 5, 201240Save for the opening "The Once and Future Carpenter", about a woodworker who abandons his trade to wander, this second album is pretty dismal fare.