- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Entertainment WeeklyPhillips' fragile, tender songs are well suited to his uneasy protagonists. [5 Mar 2004, p.69]
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MojoA fabulous, strangely soothing listen. [Feb 2004, p.100]
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Although Virginia Creeper is a return in some ways to the days of "Dixie Drug Store" and "Lady Godiva and Me", the album is more about refinement than regression, comforting and fresh.
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Like Springsteen, Phillips centers his songwriting in a kind of mythic America, an approach he used as well in his former band, Grant Lee Buffalo. But it is an approach that works only if the songs and the characters in them are believable, and Phillips' carefully considered, ornate lyrics often work against that believability.
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Arguably the best thing Phillips has done since Grant Lee Buffalo’s fantastic 1993 debut, Fuzzy.
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UncutArguably slight at first, it rewards repeat listening as its seductive, heartfelt stories unfurl. [Mar 2004, p.90]
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Finds Phillips surrounded by an authoritative squad of folk and country musicians who lend a quiet conviction to his songs.
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This is smart, literate stuff painted on a rich canvas of pedal steel, ukulele, upright bass, strings and soft drums.
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If the tasteful, lissome country-folk backing of steel guitar, fiddle, piano, drums, and harmony vocals from Cindy Wasserman is a tad shy of adventurous, the sound suits the ripe, romantic, and dreamy mood of Phillips's songs.
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On Virginia Creeper, he shows a sharpened sense of Midwestern melancholy that is really quite appealing, despite the sometimes hackneyed musical arrangements.
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Q Magazine[His] gravel-like vocals envelop the album, while his well-travelled eyes ensure the lyrics are filled with knowing experience. [Mar 2004, p.109]
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His carefully constructed tales are accompanied by a warm intimacy, the folky-edge only reinforcing the emphasis on the stories.
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Phillips' emotions sound somewhat confused, but his ear for pleasing arrangements remains sharp, and the album's best moments have a way of sneaking up from the background.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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BenJAug 17, 2004
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markfMar 8, 2004