Critic Reviews
| 91 |
Stylus Magazine
If The Unfairground doesn’t quite qualify as a "stunning" return to form--"stunning" never really being Ayers’ stock in trade--it certainly represents the delightful and unexpected renaissance of a perennially undervalued artist, whose quiet but significant influence is long overdue for re-assessment.
|
| 88 |
Los Angeles Times
Ayers' revealing account--his first album in 15 years--stands with his best '70s works of besotted, droll sophistication.
|
| 80 |
Uncut
Whatever the situation, Ayers's amenability shines through regardless, a wave of warmth that can lighten the heaviest soul.
|
| 80 |
All Music Guide
Unfairground is one of the great records to come out of Great Britain in 2007 and adds exponentially to the legacy and well-deserved reputation of one of the great songsmiths that rock sometimes doesn't know it produced.
|
| 80 |
Boston Globe
Nudged out of retirement, the singer-guitarist has returned with The Unfairground, his first album in 15 years and best in more than three decades.
|
| 80 |
Dusted Magazine
The Unfairground features ten strong songs without filler or flab. All have melodies that rapidly lodge in the brain, the kind that the paperboy could whistle on his round.
|
| 80 |
Mojo
The Unfairground finds Ayers rejuvenated and stands comparison with his best work. [Oct 2007, p.98]
|
| 80 |
musicOMH.com
The Unfairground is a short and sweet collection of ten tunes, rich with strings, original ideas, lovely melodies and a whiff of what used to be.
|
| 80 |
Q Magazine
The result are a joy, exuding the same casual charm that has always characterised his best work. [Sep 2008]
|
| 75 |
The Phoenix
His philosophizing is rarely twee, and his fine-oaked voice gives new authority to his pastis-and-mushroom-fueled musings.
|
| 70 |
Spin
His best in more than 30 years, he teams up with members of Ladybug Transistor, Teenage Fanclub, and others for songs heavy on rememberance but energized with chin-up horns and strings that'll sound fresh to fans of the Decemberists and Arcade Fire. [Apr 2008, p.92]
|
| 40 |
PopMatters
The Unfairground maintains no connection whatsoever to jazz, once a mainstay of Ayers, The Whole World, and The Soft Machine, and even the album’s affiliations with other black art forms are strained at best.
|
|
