Tourist - Athlete
Metascore
46 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 19
  2. Negative: 7 out of 19
  1. The disc's cool atmosphere and expansive orchestral arrangements go a long way in making a mood.
  2. 70
    Their horizons have broadened. [Feb 2005, p.102]
  3. Here, they are hitting their stride. [Feb 2005, p.98]
  4. Fun, emotional, experimental-ready and personally uplifting.
  5. The problem for Athlete is that Coldplay are returning in a matter of weeks to show how it's really done. [29 Jan 2005, p.59]
  6. Athlete often can't help but sounding formulaic. [#10, p.115]
  7. Swooning song-poetry and Coldplay karaoke over electronics-tinged arrangements that sound very pro forma.
  8. A solid collection of delicate songs.
  9. Unfortunately "Tourist" is derivative in only a one-dimensional sense: its imagination stopping where Wayne Coyne's begins.
  10. Unfortunately, too much of Tourist seems like an amalgam of other things, whether it's the Coldplay-ness of their ballads or the distinct Super Furry Animals influence that's been with Athlete all along.
  11. Athlete seem to have found a formula in the studio and left the autopliot in reverse.
  12. Instantly forgettable. [#16, p.139]
  13. Drama in music works perfectly fine in mediated, tactical doses, but for Tourist, the stakes are unrealistically high.
  14. A very disappointing step backwards.
  15. [A] ham-fisted attempt at being exactly like everything else.
  16. "Wires" does grow in stature with familiarity through radio exposure, and "Trading Air" could easily have the same kind of airplay success, but I can't understand the mindset of anyone who'd want to play them over and over again when so many other, more exciting and intriguing things exist.
  17. 20
    Tourist begins earnestly... and continues through 11 torpid ballads, drained of all their earlier quirks, seemingly laboratory-designed for those who find Keane too edgy. [Feb 2005, p.83]
  18. 20
    Beck (Sea Change) and Coldplay (Parachutes) already made the exponentially better versions of this album. [Jun 2005, p.76]
  19. If it's possible to imagine a gutted Coldplay or an even more comatose Snow Patrol, Athlete is it.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 42
  2. Negative: 9 out of 42
  1. gg
    10
    Great
  2. RobC
    4
    Just one or two good songs. They came late, the bri-pop wave is not here anymore.
  3. izata
    9
    deaf critics they are... givin 1-5 scales.... this is an ingenious, beautiful, catchy(some songs) n mostly brilliant...