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- Critic score
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Q MagazineJan 27, 2014Onwards and upwards. [Oct 2013, p.109]
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MojoOct 16, 2013For all their assiduous construction and heartfelt subject matter, Sheff's songs struggle to match the abundant hook-line quotient of his youthful influences and inspiration. [Nov 2013, p.88]
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Oct 16, 2013A stirring evocation of childhood, community and the nature of memory, The Silver Gymnasium suits being pored over as much as it does driving on a sunny day--and it suits both very well indeed.
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Oct 1, 2013Preferring to be a bit more refined, The Silver Gymnasium mixes maturity and depth with rare awkward moments which are more typical of a band that is musically in their late adolescence.
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Sep 30, 2013This time around, they’ve toned down on the drama and, despite Sheff wanting to make this album quickly, seem to have taken the time to recount the past so they can tell their stories with appropriate reverence to being young.
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Sep 30, 2013There's a strange disconnect here, one that might be ironed out by facing the past head-on rather than treating it as a concept.
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Sep 30, 2013The musical arrangements, laden with pianos, brass, synths and strings in occasionally strained approximation of Arcade Fire, aren't always so nuanced. Still, in its more understated moments, such as slow-burn closer Black Nemo, music and memory chime beautifully.
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Sep 27, 2013The Silver Gymnasium lacks some of whatever it was that made previous albums like 'Black Sheep Boy' and 'The Stage Names' so special.
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Sep 26, 2013I catch whispers of Oliver's Army, Dexy's, Jesus and Mary Chain: my own youth rising to the surface, just as Sheff intends.
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Sep 26, 2013Much like the youth the record so pointedly evokes, it’s worth going through everything to get to this point.
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MagnetSep 19, 2013The period specificity doesn't weigh down this buoyant album. [No. 102, p.60]
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Sep 19, 2013On the whole, the band’s country-leaning indie rock pulses along for 49 minutes at a decent clip.
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Sep 11, 2013For the most part, Silver Gymnasium makes for an uplifting and triumphant listen, with a positive energy running through the music and the melodies.
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Sep 6, 2013The Silver Gymnasium has Sheff getting increasingly personal, though it sometimes seems as if he has no more personal secrets left to reveal. The new experience is stunted by the fact that everything really just sounds like a memory.
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Sep 5, 2013This album finds them going all-out in swashbuckling revelry for the most part, and it suits them better than anyone might have expected.
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Sep 5, 2013Like Arcade Fire's Funeral and The Suburbs, there's a thrashing catharsis in childhood emotions, but Sheff balances raw moments with a more mature filter.
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Sep 4, 2013Gymnasium is yearning and wide-eyed, steeped in action figures and Atari. Where this record veers from its predecessors is in its pervading optimism.
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Sep 4, 2013It’s one of the most honest albums I’ve heard, but even better, it’s told with expertise.
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Sep 3, 2013It all combines to create an album of magical (realist) splendor, a journey into a past which will always have more to offer each time you listen to it.
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Sep 3, 2013Ultimately, though, the album is weighed down by verbose lyrics and excess ambition.
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Sep 3, 2013The Silver Gymnasium grows on you, and sooner or later its nostalgia becomes your own--only the names and places are different.
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Sep 3, 2013Sheff's willingness to strike a balance between his roots rock past and his personal past should please longtime fans and newbies alike, even if they spend the majority of the ride wondering why the tour bus never actually stops at the Silver Gymnasium.
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Sep 3, 2013Nearly every song embodies this symbiotic relationship of adolescent daydreams and the ominous real world, as if each tune was its own coming-of-age novella.
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Sep 3, 2013It’s the work of a band that’s learned it doesn’t need to completely reinvent the wheel in order to keep things fresh.
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Sep 3, 2013Perhaps when performed live these songs will accrue the desperation and dynamism their studio versions lack, but for now The Silver Gymnasium too often makes the act of remembering sound like a consequence-free undertaking, as though certain horrors are too far in the past to do us much harm in the present.
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Sep 3, 2013Whether exploring a lost little town or his own lost soul, Will Sheff proves an excellent tour guide.
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Aug 30, 2013The showmanship and pomp of The Silver Gymnasium render youthful curiosity and naivety with dazzling honesty.
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Alternative PressAug 30, 2013Often dark, but strangely triumphant. [Oct 2013, p.92]
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UncutAug 30, 2013[The Silver Gymnasium is] the sincerest, most heartfelt album they've yet assembled, and it's all the more powerful for it. [Oct 2013, p.60]
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Aug 30, 2013The Silver Gymnasium finds the band a little more controlled, the emotions a bit more corralled, more focused. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.93]
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Aug 30, 2013It’s Okkervil River’s most mature album yet--coming after six previous records that were already fully formed.
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Aug 30, 2013Ostensibly about a specific time and place, The Silver Gymnasium confirms Okkervil River as a band that's still too crafty to settle for anything so simple as a straightforward paean to childhood, using this boilerplate structure to examine the deeper meaning behind the natural impulse to fixate on the past.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 12
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Mixed: 1 out of 12
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Negative: 1 out of 12
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Oct 28, 2013
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Sep 5, 2013