• Record Label: File 13
  • Release Date: Mar 30, 2004
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 13
  2. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Sublime and spacey, delicate and dramatic.
  2. Magnet
    80
    It's not only the supremely crafted song structures that give this album its classic feel but also the trickery-free production and Russo's slightly grayed tenor. [#64, p.107]
  3. Mojo
    80
    A splendid corollary to Mercury Rev's 1998 pastoral masterpiece, Deserter's Songs. [Jan 2005, p.94]
  4. Q Magazine
    80
    Reserve space and time for it. [Feb 2005, p.104]
  5. Throughout ‘The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused’ runs the coherent theme of creeping, haunting lullabies, and that furrow which sees The Silent League ultimately master their own unique beauty.
  6. The Silent League weave lush musical tapestries with a real humility at heart, preventing themselves from ever taking this orchestral deal too seriously, while remaining focused just enough to produce an album of stunning sonic quality.
  7. The Silent League sounds pretty, but their gooey emotional stuff doesn't run very deep.
  8. The Orchestra's more stripped-down songs are its most effective, possibly because, with just guitar, piano, bass and drums, they give the melodies and vocal hooks more room to breathe.
  9. There's a decidedly reigned-in grandeur to the orchestrally-focused Silent League. The strings and things are never allowed to get overly carried away in their stratospherics, the slide guitar and saw are supplied in delicate veins rather than employed in over-styled extravagance.
User Score
tbd

No user score yet- Awaiting 1 more rating

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. lisam
    Apr 21, 2005
    10
    wow