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He's skilled and inventive with his work as a musician, but the aches and pains of songs like "Swinging Man" and "God's Lonely People" fall short of what Malin delivered on The Fine Art of Self-Destruction.
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80Overall, it's a solid, unashamedly honest portrait.
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60Organ-laced acoustic ballads like "Block Island" are a tad too drowsy for the disc's tough topics. [Aug 2004, p.134]
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With the current renaissance of the one-man band genre, it's pleasing to see that we now have a modern-day figurehead worthy of rock’s glorious past.
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80A hungry batch of songs that finds Malin wandering the avenues and uncovering compelling stories wherever he goes. [#64, p.100]
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80The Heat doesn’t offer a dramatic change from its predecessor stylistically.... What it does have is more energy, better material and more focus.
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90Far from being a one-note repetition of life in the Big City, Malin's production has turned The Heat into a multifaceted rock and roll onslaught.
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40Sees him progressing further towards becoming a punked-up Bruce Springsteen. Trouble is, someone's got there already--his best mate, Ryan Adams. [Jul 2004, p.118]
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These are familiar tales of lost women and running men, but the sting and color in Malin's language and voice put you right by his side in these noisy bars and deserted bedrooms.
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The Heat compares favorably to PJ Harvey’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, offering the same NYCentric references (“9-11 baby boom”), gruff, understated guitar work and narrative aptitude. These are Malin’s stories from the city and they don’t disappoint.
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Malin's strained whine makes his earnest lyrics sound more pretentious than they probably are.
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100Whereas the fucked-up, punk attitude [Ryan] Adams feigned on Rock'n'Roll was based on little more than pique, The Heat is all genuine passion, brimming with energy, anger and great tunes sandwiched between the dense guitars. [Jul 2004, p.114]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 3
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Mixed: 0 out of 3
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Negative: 0 out of 3
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PeterM8the rockers are great, with the slow tracks a bit boring. well worth it. but get '...self destruction' instead - that's a maserpiece
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ZachL9
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NeilG8A handful of great tunes the rest are merely excellent