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The First Days Of Spring Image
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 36 Ratings

  • Summary: The second album for the band features a film directed by the band's lead singer, Charles Fink.

Top Track

The First Days Of Spring
It's the first day Of spring And my life is starting over again Well, the trees grow The river flows And its water will wash away my sin For I do... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. They have done a hell of a lot of growing up. An immense album.
  2. This is a beautiful album. Moving rather than maudlin, uplifting rather than depressing.
  3. The quiet simplicity of these songs is better suited to Fink’s lone voice, clear without a jumble of voices and complex harmonies, strengthening the continuity of the storytelling.
  4. It’s an intriguing record brimming with solid songs that only loses step by keeping to a narrow path.
  5. Under The Radar
    70
    The First Days Of Spring has a wonderful orchestral bent, with many tracks graced by symphonic backing that brings welcome grandeur without succumbing to cloying melodrama. [Fall 2009, p.59]
  6. Despite its shortcomings, The First Days of Spring marks a welcome escape from such labels as "quirky" and "twee", with a musical maturity that requires only an equivalent lyrical magic to amount to something truly special.
  7. At the moment, though, it appears as though this is one twee-pop album that simply doesn't pop.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Jan 10, 2014
    10
    After a lackluster debut with Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, Noah and the Whale returns with what might be the ultimate break-up album.After a lackluster debut with Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, Noah and the Whale returns with what might be the ultimate break-up album. Going from total sadness and longing in the brilliant title-track to the eventual "moving on" phase in "Blue Skies" and "My Door is Always Open," The Last Days of Spring is the perfect diagram of the emotional turmoil following heartbreak. Every song adds to this overall feeling of the process of getting over love, with massive amounts of drama pumped into every song. One warning: if you enjoyed their debut album, this album is vastly different, and at times even leaves the realm of folk music in the depiction of emotional turmoil, something that may not be a welcome change for you. However, I still recommend you try this album, as you might be surprised and find something even better. Expand