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Wash the Sins Not Only the Face Image
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the second full-length release from the Brighton indie rock trio.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Jan 11, 2013
    90
    An album of chilly, detached beauty.
  2. Jan 14, 2013
    80
    Everything about this album is bigger than what has gone before and reveals an energised band with a real belief in what they're doing. Quite right too.
  3. Jan 25, 2013
    80
    The opposite of a sophomore slump, Wash the Sins Not Only the Face is sleek and spectral, and finds Esben and the Witch casting their spell even more successfully.
  4. Jan 25, 2013
    69
    They haven't quite found it yet, but Esben and the Witch have the potential for an arresting and momentous album in them.
  5. Feb 1, 2013
    60
    There are some encouraging if fleeting flickers of light and warmth here that hint there could be more to come in terms of musical development, but for now the group are little more than faithful revivalists of a niche subculture with limited appeal beyond those already converted.
  6. Jan 22, 2013
    60
    The relentless gothic signifiers too often leave you in the cold, wondering why you didn't spend the last 45 minutes enhancing or deepening your more sinister feelings, rather than drowning beneath them.
  7. Jan 16, 2013
    40
    Esben and the Witch seem stuck on an autopilot where any levity is out of bounds and an abyss beckons for all the wrong reasons.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of