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What we are given this time round is a rather boring queue of unmemorable songs.
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For the moment they have tightened the experimental purse strings, offering a less rewarding batch of songs than they’re capable of creating.
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This is, truly, an album worthy of obsession.
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Mostly, though, The Dodos’ little quirks--the lack of bass, the blustery drumming, the lyrics that threaten to say something profound but never do--irritate rather than intrigue.
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With the drums and guitar so busy in the mix of almost every song, Keaton Snyder’s amped-up vibes are an inspired addition, their subtle atmospheric effects put to careful use by producer Phil Ek.
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Time To Die has its heart in the right place, but the product is not as nearly lovable.
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Like a lot of albums produced by Phil Ek (by the Shins, for instance, and Fleet Foxes), you're impressed, but don't necessarily warm to it.
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Time to Die reveals a band that is continuing to grow with scintillating results. Luckily for us, no one’s sitting in the backseat here.
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Time to Die by itself isn’t a bad album, necessarily, but it’s not even close to the same level as Visiter and what made Dodos different to begin with. I hope that on their fourth album, these guys return to their roots.
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The hurtling pace the Dodos maintain and the complexity they manage to fill into these tight spaces is fascinating, at times amazing, fitfully matching complexity with speed.
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'Two Medicines' also shows off what the new, musically open Dodos can do, but until the vocals come into sync, an album-length high-water mark will remain elusive.
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The key to The Dodos isn’t their lyrics, but their melodies. And on Time to Die, they’re strong and sufficient.
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Time to Die is far from a bad album, but unpredictability still suits the Dodos better than trying to fit into a more recognizable indie rock mold.
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Time to Die bests it as far as consistency goes.
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Time to Die will be filler for most people, a stopgap, a passing interest, at best a stepping stone.
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Time to Die doesn’t seem to strive for anything, so it settles into being a pleasant little pop record, boring and bereft of character.
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Alternative PressIt seems silly to declare Time To Die too well put together, but it's not always the shapest knife that gets the most use. [Oct 2009, p.110]
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Q MagazineIf they tend toward the opaque, a soothing vibraphone or twinkling guitar arpeggio is never too far away. [Oct 2009, p.108]
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The band seems to have decided musical chops and precision production are more important than ideas, turning Time to Die into a startlingly streamlined affair that passes without leaving much of a mark.
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MojoThe Afro-ising influence of Vampire Weekend on Precisely The Dodos' musical sector leaves them sounding emblematic only of early-Noughties blowsiness--as passe as their name suggests. [Oct 2009, p.108]
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Under The RadarLong's amazing guitar work, evident since his solo album, also does it best to break through, but in the end, can't. [Fall 2009, p.62]
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Perhaps the idea was to make the Dodos’ introspection more overt, or to cushion the songs’ cryptic reflections on breakups, commercialism, mortality and global warming. The intricacies do come through. But these songs will sound better after they’ve been roughed up onstage.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 14
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Mixed: 4 out of 14
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Negative: 0 out of 14
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ShangoSep 15, 2009Great 3rd album. definitely worthy of listening to it over and over.