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The dozen brief, ridiculously infectious tunes on Watch me Fall come wrapped in arrangements that run from frenetic punk to bouncy Britpop to wistful balladry.
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90Watch Me Fall is even more melodic. Reatard classes up the joint a bit, smearing organ, hard-strummed acoustic guitar, and strings on the unrequited-love epic 'I’m Watching You.'
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'It Ain't Gonna Save Me'--inarguably one of the best tracks to date from the Memphis punk rocker born Jay Lindsey--seethes melodic vitriol with its breathless guitars and lyrics about shitting clouds. It's the high point of Watch Me Fall, but the rest of the record hardly slouches.
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Watch Me Fall includes some of his best sing-along jams yet.
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Watch Me Fall isn’t evolution, but it is certainly maturation, the first physical testament of aging as a slog toward something better.
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Watch Me Fall’ finds him with space to show off the full genius of his songwriting, turning the fuzz down, the jangle up and taking the (for him) radical decision to throw in violins and even some pianos.
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80He has found his musical voice on Watch Me Fall, and while it may not be the best album of 2009, but it’s certainly one of the most enjoyable.
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Crafted with peaks at the beginning, middle and end, Watch Me Fall is the album Jay Reatard made so we can watch him do the opposite. [Sep 2009, p.108]
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80The whole thing whizzes by in just over half an hour, making it perfect for repeat listens. Reatard may not be for everyone's taste, and some tracks do find him coasting along, but it's an album bursting with confidence and energy.
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Watch Me Fall, the emphasis is more on quality than quantity, a focused sense of attention which flowers here, each song brimming over with hooks.
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80Garage punk hero Jay Reatard has grown up, and, surprisingly, this has turned out to be a very good thing indeed.
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Watch Me Fall, is an exhilarating ride of roaring highs that never let up.
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80This is his second solo release after over a decade in the music business, and it’s properly brilliant.
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A barnstorming, kiwi-pop-delicate album that is Reatard’s best album-length statement to date.
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79Watch Me Fall is neither a reinvention nor a holding pattern for Reatard--walking the line between them is tricky, but he continues to make doing so look easy.
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Reatard wants to do it all, and he comes pretty close.
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The production values on Watch Me Fall are hardly epic, but the guitars and keys slide out bright and clear, melodies unfettered by anything beyond crystal-pure hooks.
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On the majestic closer, alongside a sad cello, he insists, "There is no sun." With sound this blazingly bright, who needs it?
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For better or worse, his mucho-affected glam vocals are as cartoonish as ever and significantly higher in the mix. But, for punks, edgy power-pop seems as though it’s one of the few long-term routes that isn’t a dead-end.
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Seven-inch obsessives probably could have seen the debut's tangy intensity coming, but for rock fans unaware of Reatard's history, Watch Me Fall is a welcome surprise.
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60As an album it's uneven, but tantalisingly the harmony-driven 'Hang Them All' sounds like "Tim"-era Replacements and hints at even bigger things to come. [Sep 2009, p.92]
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60Beneath the catchy hooks, a collection of bleak songs about nihilism and failure are revealed. [Sep 2009, p.92]
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Watch Me Fall strives for but never achieves a more classic and accessible sound.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 0 out of 5
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Negative: 1 out of 5
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ap1976prZ8Great album!
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AngryJ.9It's pretty awesome.
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LukasK.9An infectious ride. And in no way unlistenable.