The Mess We Made
by Matt Elliott
  • Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: May 13, 2003
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 1 out of 4

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  1. AntonisL
    May 31, 2003
    10
    Let's get one thing straight...this isn't for guys who just can't stand melancholy. This is pure desperation in its most original and authentic morpheme. Matt Elliott is a genious...he proved that countless times though The Third Eye Foundation's albums and he proves it once again. Melodic soundscapes for a murky night. Like the soundtrack for the death of a just Let's get one thing straight...this isn't for guys who just can't stand melancholy. This is pure desperation in its most original and authentic morpheme. Matt Elliott is a genious...he proved that countless times though The Third Eye Foundation's albums and he proves it once again. Melodic soundscapes for a murky night. Like the soundtrack for the death of a just new-born child. Grief and desperation in every word and note, but weirdly in the end what is left behind is the flavor of a new travel/life/journey that begins on the ashes of the loss. Through all this pain Matt Elliton manages to instil you scrapings of optimism. If someone of you has seen the french film "The City Of The Lost Children", I'm sure he'll realize what I'm talking about here. The "Mess We Made" seems like it has immersed its musical soul in the dark canals of that city. "Songs" like "The Sinking Ship Song" and "The Dog Beneath The Skin" are simply some of the best you'll listen to this year and surely will leave you with a bitter feeling and some tears dropping from your cold memories. I'm astonished...an example from "The Sinking Ship Song"'s lyrics: "Though the wind may change This face still stays the same It just brings more rain Just to soak us But this time will pass Things like this never last So let's leave this farce Way behind us And we've all got to die So in the meantime let's leave Scream your name while you've still got breath Let's raise a glass to life and drink away the memories of those we have lost to death..." Just do yourself a favor and get this asap.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

63
#63 Best Album of 2003

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. PopMatters
    80
    This record expects -- nay, demands -- multiple exposures. Its hidden delights and traps are equally patient.
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  2. The Wire
    70
    Delicacy replaces density here, but his capacity to unnerve remains on these sedately mournful chamber pieces. [#231, p.74]
  3. Pitchfork
    76
    Disturbing, complicated, and enthrallingly strange, The Mess We Made requires patience, and, ideally, an already established taste for Elliott's previous ambient output.
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