The Milk Of Human Kindness
- Caribou
- Band Name: Caribou
- Record Label: Domino / Leaf
- Release Date: May 3, 2005
- Critic Score
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Perhaps less transcendent, The Milk of Human Kindness may ultimately prove more enjoyable.
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90With this majestic and multifarious new album, he has surely struck sonic gold once again.
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90Rather than a credible follow-up, it's another great album in its own right.
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90Kindness sounds like the work of someone given one month to live, as Snaith lays down dozens of musical ideas into an album that will constantly keep you guessing what's next. [May 2005, p.84]
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90Snaith lets his wanderlust steer, and the album is better for it. [#68, p.91]
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I bet that The Milk of Human Kindness will appear on my and others' "best of 2005" lists.
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The range of styles is impressive, which trumps the lack of logical or elegant transitioning. Snaith may be showing off, but at least he's backing it up with strong and memorable arrangements.
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85Another thrilling, excellent record.
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85It's similar enough to past efforts that one can trace his artistic trajectory with a steady arc, but it's the point in the arc where the slope takes a radical increase, making the name change seem like an appropriate signifier.
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The album ups the ante on everything that made Up in Flames so astounding, and adds more pop structure to the chaotic bliss-outs, resulting in what is probably his biggest achievement to date.
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A perfect slice of bedroom psychedelia. [9 Apr 2005, p.58]
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Snaith employs a slightly more muscular variation of the approach that worked so well for him last time around. [#9]
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80It displays the kind of emotion and movement that Four Tet, Boom Bip and Stereolab would all appreciate.
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80[Snaith] continues to explore a digital/analogue interface to mind-bending effect, balancing riotous abstraction with day-glo pop. [Jun 2005, p.97]
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80Snaith simply dictates the flow of emotions and events on this record, with the kind of command presence rarely seen.
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Snaith... continues his legacy of making constantly challenging, changing music that never gets beyond itself, that always remains immensely human.
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Snaith covers a lot of bases on The Milk of Human Kindness and somehow it all works.
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Snaith rips the rarefied sounds of modern pop from their established context and forms nonlinear compositions constantly in flux.
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80The only drawback to this semi-collage approach is that many tracks are too brief. [#256, p.51]
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80Although The Milk of Human Kindness sounds more stripped down, its simplicity is deceiving, as Snaith has drawn from a much wider musical palette that he ever has in the past.
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70A familiarly kaleidoscopic whirl of retro-futuristic sounds. [May 2005, p.111]
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70On first listen, it's not as immediately accessible as Up In Flames... [but it] reveals itself in several listens and contains yet another batch of fearless tracks from an artist who simply refuses to sit still.
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60It's only the Can-meets-Canned-Heat avant-boogie of "Bees" and "Barnowl" that escape a sense of academic contrivance. [May 2005, p.95]
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60Too bad most of his songs come to an end just as they're heating up. [Jun 2005, p.108]
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Unfortunately, although Snaith may sound novel expanding upon his indie forebears of ten years ago, when he begins conjuring the ghosts of Krautrock ("A Final Warning," "Bees") or trip-hop ("Lord Leopard"), as he does here, he's entering the company of talented producers who have ploughed the same ground.
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40The Milk Of Human Kindness grabs at elements of its predecessors, but they're often the wrong ones.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 8
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Mixed: 0 out of 8
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Negative: 0 out of 8
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matta6This album is very much a mixed bag. The songs that work are incredible, but the songs that don't are, well, utter ****
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zegr6
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crumbtrail9