The New Life
by Girls Names
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
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  1. Exclaim
    Dec 31, 2013
    80
    The overall tempo has slowed, allowing for more instrumental variation and a chance for the band to explore the new musical terrain (which they thoroughly do).
  2. Pitchfork
    Mar 21, 2013
    65
    For now, Cully's another voice in the crowd in that regard, but his promising talent displayed elsewhere on The New Life suggests that he's one to keep your ears perked up for nonetheless.
  3. Beats Per Minute
    Mar 18, 2013
    79
    Girls Names does not dwell on the dourness, but conquers and transforms it into a solace--a sound resulting from some hallucinatory fever like a Max Ernst painting, realizing the shadowy dimension parallel to this existence.
  5. PopMatters
    Mar 14, 2013
    60
    The New Life is enjoyable, and there are times when I listen to it and quite like it. Very much. It’s just hardly groundbreaking.
  6. Q Magazine
    Mar 12, 2013
    80
    It's a minor-chord menace, their darker surf-steeped vibe driven by steady percussion and hypnotic basslines. [Apr 2013, p.101]
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  7. AllMusic
    Mar 11, 2013
    80
    These songs, and the album as a darkly moody whole, show the band to be growing into masters of crafting modern psychedelia with dark swirls instead of day-glo, and bad trips instead of sunshine days.
  8. Under The Radar
    Mar 8, 2013
    75
    The New Life is a fully-formed long player that yields rewards over time, not just 50 minutes.
  9. Paste Magazine
    Mar 5, 2013
    73
    What the band is doing is creating a unique template of dark, post-punk, garage-y rock, often controlled and sometimes unleashed, that marks The New Life as one of the better albums released so far this year.
  10. Consequence
    Feb 26, 2013
    60
    Girls Names reproduce favorite sounds admirably, and they’ve chosen an extremely popular era to recall, but perhaps a little maturation in this New Life will get them to an exciting place equal to the one they’d already reached.
  11. Drowned In Sound
    Feb 26, 2013
    90
    If Cathal Cully's aim was to leave the past behind then he's succeeded resoundingly, and created one of this year's most ungainly beautiful records in the process.
  12. BBC Music
    Feb 20, 2013
    80
    The result is a stylish, intelligent record that does exactly what it set out to do: Girls Names have reinvented their sound and come up smelling of roses.
  13. New Musical Express (NME)
    Feb 20, 2013
    80
    In places it’s a bit samey, marred by a shortage of songs. But The New Life is, nonetheless, a must-listen.
  14. The Fly (UK)
    Feb 20, 2013
    80
    Girls Names make sadness moreish and hypnotic.
  15. The Line of Best Fit
    Feb 20, 2013
    50
    Moody. Loveless. One-paced. Monotonous. Dull.

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