- Critic score
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The overall mood is casual, laidback, and relaxed.
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UncutAt his best he sounds spontaneous, fresh and unexpected. Yet at other times his quirky ideas can sound half-baked and his songs undeveloped. [May 2003, p.102]
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Q MagazineA limited vocalist,... he's a far better pianist and arranger. [May 2003, p.104]
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Too much of The Listener finds Gelb bridging his inspired moments with monotonous jazz piano and dusty crooning.
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The WireIt all sounds very loose and off the cuff, but any positive sense of spontaneity is sabotaged by a delivery so careless it borders on the sloppy. [#229, p.68]
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"The Listener" is a low-key, early morning album, perhaps something Lou Reed would have created had he spent his career playing saloons in Tucson, Ariz.
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Opener "Glisten" is anybody's masterpiece.... This instrumental brings so much anticipation to the rest of this record, it's no wonder I'm partly disappointed with The Listener: Gelb can't and doesn't deliver a dozen more songs like "Glisten".