- Record Label: Astralwerks / Licking Fingers
- Release Date: Jun 29, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Alternative PressA snow globe of an album that's sparkling, brilliant and only held back by gravity. [Aug 2004, p.106]
-
New Musical Express (NME)An understated classic: a triumph of delicacy over decibels. [19 Jun 2004, p.56]
-
FilterIt's simple, easy listening. [#11, p.98]
-
Entertainment WeeklyThe staccato horns and guitar drones bathed in Wall of Gloom reverb provide just enough warmth to ward off frostbite. [23 Jul 2004, p.77]
-
The tracks on The Concretes are easily their most accomplished, fluid statement to date.
-
Under The RadarCompletes the near impossible accomplishment of making a mood record without becoming repetitive. [#7]
-
There are moments when The Concretes ape Mazzy Star a little too closely for comfort on this album, but overplaying a talent for languorous, delicious fuzz pop is hardly the most horrific of crimes.
-
UncutThe best thing to come out of Sweden for a while... apart from porn. [Jul 2004, p.95]
-
Corralling such a large cast into anything like a coherent vision is no easy task, but it's one that the Concretes manage with some aplomb on a consistently spectacular album. [Amazon UK]
-
Too good to be merely forgettable or a waste of a decade's worth of building and planning, but too uniform and flawed to stand out as a major achievement or even one of the year's best.
-
Definitely mysterious, but the songs on this record are obvious when it comes to the Concretes’ influences.
-
Even if The Concretes is slightly disappointing in some aspects, it also has more than enough charms in its own right.
-
It starts with impressive gusto but meanders towards the end, drifting into slow, forgettable balladry.
-
What's perhaps most interesting about the album is that it steers clear of most indie rock tropes.
-
While the songs have a tendency to run together with an overall sameness, the album as a whole is greater than its individual parts.
-
Music that’s easier to admire than love.
-
A decidedly schizophrenic experience, if a frequently beautiful and, at the very least, relentlessly promising one.
-
Wispy and coquettish... a love-it-or-hate-it proposition.
-
Q MagazineFine for a happy hour of poppy abstraction, but you may find it tough remembering much of it afterwards. [Jul 2004, p.113]
-
Rolling StoneThe overall effect can be saccharine, but the Concretes' big orchestration and sweet fragility are a winning combo. [19 Aug 2004, p.122]
-
All of this material is spirited, pleasant, and grounded in the context of rock history, but I'm still wondering who it is I'm listening to.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 7 out of 11
-
Mixed: 1 out of 11
-
Negative: 3 out of 11
-
DanB.Feb 6, 2005Love it. Tell me "Lonely As Can Be" is not absolutely amazing. Just tell me. I'll smack you upside the head if you do, tho.
-
ParisPOct 22, 2004
-
MarcusCOct 13, 2004Pure bliss. This is the best pop album of the year.