- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Guillemots are constructing their own universe and inviting interested parties to join them within it. I can’t remember the last time a band did that so effectively and so invitingly.
-
There isn't a duff track to be seen, and you get the feeling the whole thing's been meticulously planned and orchestrated, with a mindset of giving us a record to cherish, something to put on when the chips are down, and that rare thing, one that will almost certainly be loved in equal measure many years down the line.
-
Through the Windowpane maximizes and intensifies every moment, every muttered word and every touch of emotion.
-
Through the Windowpane is at times a last-dance hallelujah, at other times an open wound, but it's never meager, and hardly ever mundane.
-
Here lie gorgeous tunes that are lithe enough to cope with the little bursts of sonic madness that flit around like overproduced Eighties butterflies.
-
Q MagazineLike Coldplay rummaging through a charity shop, it's a patchwork of moods and styles all stitched together by Dangerfield's heart-on-sleeve exhortations. [Aug 2006, p.113]
-
UncutSergio Mendes meets Sparks then plunders Charles Mingus? Could be. [Aug 2006, p.95]
-
MojoA messy, eccentric triumph. [Aug 2006, p.98]
-
New Musical Express (NME)Positively overflowing with magnificent oddities. [1 Jul 2006, p.36]
-
A record of dazzling invention and scope.
-
At its best... the band more than justifies the hype.
-
Not all of Dangerfield's maverick ideas work - he should steer clear of under-accompanied singing for a start - but when they do take off, Guillemots really soar.
-
With their grand orchestrations, love of idiosyncratic detail and self-consciously old-school dynamics, Guillemots sound refreshingly out of temper with the times.
-
Instead of just latching on to the sonic palette of The Beta Band (a group they seem intent on emulating), they could embrace the Beta mindset: the creativity, playfulness, and refusal to ever bore the audience that made that band so frustratingly brilliant.
-
A debut that, frustratingly, juggles promise and excess.
-
There's still a kind of inconsistency in the development of Through the Windowpane, an inconsistency that can't quite work itself out in sweeping strings and vaguely dissonant chords, and unfortunately, this diminishes the power of what the album really could be.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 37 out of 47
-
Mixed: 5 out of 47
-
Negative: 5 out of 47
-
AidanK.Feb 29, 2008I love this record, its just an absolute joy from beginning to end.
-
BobW.Feb 27, 2008I love this album, having owned it for ages but only recently listened to it properly I can't leave it alone now.
-
alfonsoz.Oct 24, 2007