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It's hard to find fault with the album's intricate arrangements and top notch production, but the songs, which rarely change key, begin to congeal into one big independent film trailer montage as the record progresses.
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Alternative PressTurns out you can be the next hipster nuzz band and actually be good. [Apr 2010, p.123]
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A serviceable but utterly derivative slice of twee electro-pop, the album quietly retreads the ground covered by Sufjan Stevens, The Postal Service and Frenchkiss labelmates Passion Pit, failing to form any identifiable shape of its own.
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As it is Weathervanes remains a catchy album that will satiate those with an indie-pop sweet tooth, (the type who can bear glockenspiel on every track) and maybe even offer the odd moment of genuine inspiration. Many of us will find it all a little too familiar and unengaging to get that far.
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It's the best electronic indie-pop debut since Ben Gibbard last tuned his laptop.
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As a whole, Weathervanes is a largely successful and ambitious trip into uncharted territory for the band, and despite its somewhat saccharine sheen, the album wears well with multiple listens and creates a spooky, dreamlike economy of its own.
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The whole thing wafts along in a pastel anasthaesia, Dadone's vocals rubbing against barely-there songs crafted with shards of synth, glockenspiel and harmonium. Conversely, the only times Weathervanes descends into twee is where it tries too hard to be noticed.
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Too much of Weathervanes is unnecessary fluff. Of the album's 13 tracks, three are wordless moments of focus-less, meaningless noise and at least three other songs could have been trimmed down by a few minutes.
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Most of Weathervanes is serviceable modern rock, so it will find an appreciative audience despite its egregious derivativeness and a lyricist who seems like he'd use the word "inebriated" to talk about how drunk he got last night.
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Weathervanes is a darling, coherent, and certainly radio-friendly (if at times sugary) record. But on their next attempt, Freelance Whales should tone down the maudlin, veer away from Sufjan territory, subtract a few bells and whistles and grow up with the college crowd.
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Q MagazineFans of Owl City and The Postal Service will relish such good clean fun, quite literally when Dadone warbles, "Don't let the bathwater get too high" on Starring. [Oct 2010, p.107]
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Mostly, though, Weathervanes is pleasantly nonconfrontational--like a Demetri Martin routine, minus the funny.
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Weathervanes, is thoroughly unoriginal in every way possible, even down to the Gibbard-esque vocals. Now, that sounds pretty damning, but fortunately their failures in ingenuity are easily made up in spectacle.
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Jan 5, 2011Weathervanes' intriguing, thought-provoking lyrics and concept-album nature-it's about a boy who falls in love with a girl ghost-make it a literate-pop gem.
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Like labelmates Passion Pit, Freelance Whales trick out their wistful, post–Postal Service electro-pop with just enough record-nerd insularity to fend off cred-endangering Justin Bieber fans.
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Though it'll never be powerful or earthshaking, Weathervanes seems to have found its place among the clouds.
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Under The RadarThey're underachievers who need to try harder. [Winter 2010, p.62]
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By the time things conclude with mannerly closer "The Great Estates" it's been made perfectly clear that this is a band ready and able to create visions with enveloping scope and delightful articulation.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 17
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Mixed: 2 out of 17
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Negative: 3 out of 17
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Jun 2, 2011
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Feb 8, 2011This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.