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BillboardFlecked at every turn with Kozelek's unique interpretive bent, "Tiny Cities" is a triumph.
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Tiny Cities... accomplishes the two key tasks that a covers album should always strive for: It stands on its own, and it makes it impossible to hear the originals in quite the same way.
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BlenderA folk-rock anti-Midas, he reduces everything he touches to a molten core of sadness. [Dec 2005, p.151]
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Alternative PressThe songs, though we've heard them many times before, take on a surprisingly fresh and delicate new identity. [Feb 2006, p.122]
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Under The RadarA large part... of a Mark Kozelek song is the arrangement.... In that sense, Tiny Cities is a collection of perfect Mark Kozelek songs. [#11, p.108]
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In recasting these wilfully off-kilter tunes and investing them with his trademark warm and inviting melancholia, Mark Kozelek need not be modest: Tiny Cities is a big success.
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UrbKozelek can make even the most lively of songs one strum shy of a death rattle. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.103]
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This is a gorgeous recording, one that in a very intimate way opens up an entire universe of possibility for understanding, integration, and brokenness. A fitting tribute indeed.
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Many of the songs lose their indelible glow being snail baited and cleared up like this.
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Tiny Cities differs very little from how we might expect it to sound.
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UncutIt seems something of a hollow exercise. [Feb 2006, p.72]
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Q MagazineBizarre, but not without appeal. [Feb 2006, p.104]
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MojoNone of these tunes conveys a fraction of the emotional ardour of those on the first (self-penned) Sun Kil Moon album. [Feb 2006, p.103]
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New Musical Express (NME)Sublime stuff. [11 Feb 2006, p.33]
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Even with Kozelek's laudable work on this outing I feel that something more robust could have emerged had the roots been original.
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It was a valiant try, but Tiny Cities just doesn't have a lot going for it unless you're a die-hard fan of Kozelek.
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Perhaps those who regard the Northwesterners' compositional skills with awe will find this a fascinating prism of strong creative angles, but as a follow-up to an extraordinarily gorgeous web of noise and delicacy, it leaves a lot to be desired.
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Turns out Isaac Brock is just too damn weird to be imitable.
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These tracks are botched experiments that can't even function as interesting failures.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 17 out of 24
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Mixed: 3 out of 24
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Negative: 4 out of 24
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JayS.Apr 9, 2008
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JamesDec 30, 2007
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markmJul 6, 2007