Alternative Press' Scores
- Music
For 3,071 reviews, this publication has graded:
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64% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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33% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.5 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 73
Highest review score: | Major/Minor | |
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Lowest review score: | Results May Vary |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 2,331 out of 3071
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Mixed: 695 out of 3071
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Negative: 45 out of 3071
3071
music
reviews
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- Alternative Press
Posted Oct 21, 2015 -
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Aggressive is probably the most compelling statement you’re going to hear for the validity of heavy rock music in 2016.- Alternative Press
- Posted Jun 6, 2016
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You'll blare Valuables on the car radio one moment, then throw it through headphones for study time later. [Jan 2017, p.83]- Alternative Press
Posted Jan 5, 2017 -
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Give[s] Skyward In Triumph and Earth 2 a run for the title of Best Album By A Duo, ever. [Jan 2005, p.113]- Alternative Press
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They deliver a collection of moving songs unified by skillful, understated songwriting, and a warmer, more organic tone than its predecessor, 2009's winning Chasing Hamburg. [Oct 2011, p.110]- Alternative Press
Posted Sep 27, 2011 -
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Palmer captures the human condition like no other artist. {Oct 2012, p.90]- Alternative Press
Posted Sep 6, 2012 -
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Stand too clsose to the bagpipes, harmonica, scream-along choruses and a constant artillery of thundering drums, and your ears are gonna get powder burns. [Apr 2010, p.130]- Alternative Press
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Anxiety's Kiss is what Coliseum have been working towards all these years. [Jun 2015, p.97]- Alternative Press
Posted May 5, 2015 -
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Through every shift in tone and style, Fernow keeps his focus, connecting these songs with small bits of spoken word that conjure up dark visions of people desperately searching for meaning in an increasingly dismal world.- Alternative Press
- Posted May 14, 2015
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Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is an absolute blast, rich in ringing guitar and euphoric synths but thankfully light on fromage and staid rehashes. [Jul 2009, p.130]- Alternative Press
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Nobody creates teeth-rottingly sweet indie rock better than Denver's Dressy Bessy. [Sep 2003, p.102]- Alternative Press
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The quintet's Molotov mixture of suburb surrealism and sonic extremity is the perfect scrub for everything you've been subjected to in culture and daily life. [Apr 2003, p.73]- Alternative Press
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It’s just the right balance of heavy and light tones, a mixture that Barnett & Co. continue to perfect throughout the whole album.- Alternative Press
- Posted Mar 7, 2014
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Architects somehow increase the ferocity with hit-and-run instrumentation to highlight Sam Carter, the genre's strongest clean vocalist and screamer. [Jun 2016, p.100]- Alternative Press
Posted May 26, 2016 -
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The result is a vivid, nostalgic traipse into what good rock bands ought to sound like. [Mar 2008, p. 144]- Alternative Press
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Tempos have been ground down to a slow crawl, but as Melvins and Sunn O))) have proven, that tactic just gives a band the chance to prove how heavy they really are. [Jun 2010, p.105]- Alternative Press
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Dear Youth is a one-size-fits-all hardcore album, one that will lead many fresh faces through the door but leave returners looking for more.- Alternative Press
- Posted Nov 18, 2014
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Eschewing the DJ-friendly club format they perfected on 1999's Remedy, the Jaxx are now writing R&B-flavored pop songs... But their success is hit-and-miss... [Jul 2001, p.60]- Alternative Press
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- Alternative Press
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Confield not only documents the future of IDM; it also cements Autechre's name in the pantheon of sonic visionaries. [Jul 2001, p.63]- Alternative Press
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Doiron's presence and Squire's understated electric guitar imbue the album with haunting, spectral beauty equal to anything Elverum's done. [Dec 2008, p.138]- Alternative Press
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Thier debut album is one of the most inventive in recent memory. [Apr 2008, p.153]- Alternative Press
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While minor lulls can be found and their habit of zeroing in on daily life's mundane nuances risks self-parody, this s*** still rips. [Mar 2013, p.92]- Alternative Press
Posted Feb 6, 2013 -
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Bardo Pond have become equally adept at making hearts and heads ache. [#155, p.68]- Alternative Press
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A collection of delicate love songs with a back-porch feel, but the electronic warbles add enough texture for a new generation of stoners to space out on. [June 2003, p.96]- Alternative Press
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A playful retro-pop event full of shifting moods. [Nov 2001, p.77]- Alternative Press
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M. Ward's creations have the fragility of drawings made in the dust that's settled on a china cabinet. [Apr 2003, p.87]- Alternative Press
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These six songs offer moments as heavy as P-Tree have ever been, but are wistfully, sprawlingly melodic as well-sometimes in the same tune.- Alternative Press
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Like Stay What You Are on steroids, it's a half-hour of instant gratification with paeans to overcoming romantic and introspective obstacles. [Oct 2014, p.101]- Alternative Press
Posted Sep 17, 2014 -
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It crushes with more speed, weirdness and sheer sonic weight than "Hope For Men" and the band's punkier debut, 2005's "Shallow." [Sep 2009, p.108]- Alternative Press
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Ritual reminds fans that these Michigan death-metal merchants are capable of greatness. [Jul 2011, p.107]- Alternative Press
Posted Jul 6, 2011 -
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Easy Pain reminds you how horrible the world can be, as well as the catharsis you can achieve if you'd only just immerse yourself in the maelstrom. [Jun 2014, p.111]- Alternative Press
- Posted May 15, 2014
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That this open-ended philosophical query ["Is it human to adore life?"] has no easy answers makes Adore Life that much more intellectually dense and appealing. [Feb 2016, p.100]- Alternative Press
Posted Jan 7, 2016 -
- Alternative Press
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Like all great albums, De-Loused in the Comatorium takes multiple listens to absorb, and, even then, you're probably not going to have a clue to what Bixler's raving about. [Jul 2003, p.107]- Alternative Press
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The kind of album that functions as both background BBQ beat and windows-down sing-along. [Jul 2003, p.112]- Alternative Press
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Rather than suffering from the absence of Technicolor mania, Point instead revels in its nuances and depth, emanating a maturity and cohesion that Fantasma lacked. [Feb 2002, p.68]- Alternative Press
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Doomsdayer's Holiday shows a band pushing the limits of psychedelic post-rock and testing the boundaries of post-metal. [Dec 2008, p.142]- Alternative Press
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Through it all, they retain their fundamental hardcore power-chug while vocalist Liam Cormier gives his most diverse screaming/growling/speaking performance yet. [May 2010, p.105]- Alternative Press
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- Alternative Press
Posted Dec 13, 2012 -
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Sixteen-tear-old vocalist Lydia Night isn't afraid to speak her mind, and the members of the Regrettes match her gritty vocal delivery and feminist sentiments with raucous rock 'n' roll guitars coated with buzzy noise and distortion. [Feb 2017, p.80]- Alternative Press
Posted Mar 15, 2017 -
- Alternative Press
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It truly does feel as if they've been holding this emotion back since the day they parted and now unleashing everything in an explosion of creative energy, delivering a magnificent record that while fresh and exciting, could only be the work of far. [Jun 2010, p.102]- Alternative Press
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- Alternative Press
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STD are as tight and melodically brilliant as ever, but the previous trilogy’s anguish and inner turmoil seem to have been replaced by warm sentimentality, declarations of undying love, and smart discourse on relationships and the human condition, with the occasional killer curveball.- Alternative Press
- Posted Sep 20, 2013
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The band have transcended to a newfound comfort, creating the most natural music of their career. [Jun 2015, p.97]- Alternative Press
Posted May 12, 2015 -
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A fine bounce-back from the lackluster They Want My Soul, as they seemed to have found their attitude and swagger. The glitzy, moody atmosphere they conjure up is a hella good look. [Apr 2017, p.82]- Alternative Press
Posted Mar 9, 2017 -
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With an occasional chest-bursting "yeeeeeeah", Vile avoids letting his most straightforward, circular songs fall into a stupor. [Apr 2011, p.115]- Alternative Press
Posted Mar 11, 2011 -
- Alternative Press
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Features less avant-garde noodling and more straight-up Youth. [Sep 2002, p.96]- Alternative Press
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Asleep is just enigmatic enough to avoid plagiarism. [Mar 2002, p.77]- Alternative Press
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Here, retaking the signature spell that Hellion and crew first conjured in the ’90s Cleveland scene, the band’s haunted hardcore gets a fresh coat of paint for the next stage of darkness. If you’re ready to enter the nightmare, this will get you howling.- Alternative Press
- Posted Jul 14, 2017
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Rather Ripped is the sound of a band no longer setting their distortion pedals on stun, and, as a result, the best songs are as low-key as a small town on Sunday morning. [Aug 2006, p.218]- Alternative Press
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A ripe thriller, the work of a facile talent with a newfound fecund baritone that goes places where Pulp could not tread. [Jun 2007, p.150]- Alternative Press
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10 tracks of alien grooves, percolating beats and shimmering atmospheres that are engaging, sophisticated, and mature. [#146, p.101]- Alternative Press
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A bewitching fusion of orchestral prettiness and exploratory electronics. [Aug 2003, p.108]- Alternative Press
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Like most good thematic albums, or films or books, for that matter, it's hard to put the pieces together on Album Of The Year, and just when you think you've got the narrative unraveled, you'll rediscover another lost passage or double entendre. [Sep 2004, p.122]- Alternative Press
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Sykes’ increased vocal range also proves a formidable addition to their arsenal, coalescing with the expanded sonic palette for a more intimate, cohesive and engaging collection.- Alternative Press
- Posted Apr 1, 2013
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The album's strongest moments are found in the duo's ability to live in the moment and take a deep, cleansing breath. [Nov 2014, p.88]- Alternative Press
Posted Oct 28, 2014 -
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The folk direction of the group's past few albums still lingers, but it's mostly buried behind immense decibels and frightening intensity. [Nov 2012, p.92]- Alternative Press
Posted Oct 29, 2012 -
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Iron Balls Of Steel is as serious as a metal recording gets; and, at least until those new Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan discs get mastered, it's also the greatest math-metal album of this still-young year.- Alternative Press
- Posted Jan 20, 2012
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- Alternative Press
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Even though the delineation among colors at times seems a bit arbitrary and difficult to differentiate, The Color Spectrum stands up surprisingly well as a companion disc. [Jul 2011, p.111]- Alternative Press
Posted Jun 9, 2011 -
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While still drenched in anguish, regret and torrential riffs, Parting The sea gives Bolm's prose-dense vignettes and feral confessions the full punch and epic scope they deserve. [Jul 2011, p.112]- Alternative Press
Posted Jun 7, 2011 -
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The whole glorious mess creates a dramatic Wagnerian opera that's (barely) held together by Congleton's yelping. [Aug 2006, p.206]- Alternative Press
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Sure, sometimes the angst gets too angsty and a couple songs feel a bit like throwaways, but this is a great, memorable and oftentimes moving release from someone who sounds like she has about 20 years and 10 albums more experience than she does.- Alternative Press
- Posted Feb 14, 2014
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Anyone with an appreciation for smartass MCs and a little of Fender-tapping would do well to give TSOL a spin. [Nov 2010, p.116]- Alternative Press
Posted Dec 15, 2010 -
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Coxon rocks it in a class of '77 Brit-punk style that'll make record-collecting fetishists in search of Adverts and Chelsea demos soil themselves. [Dec 2006, p.198]- Alternative Press
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Fever Ray is most reminiscent of the Knife self-titled debut--which means it's merely fantastic rather than transcendent. [May 2009, p.114]- Alternative Press
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"Do I Wanna Know?" and "R U Mine?" are a couple of satisfying stomps anchoring this collection of gold-tinted kiss-offs. [Oct 2013, p.82]- Alternative Press
Posted Aug 30, 2013 -
- Alternative Press
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The closest punk has come to the dread of Robert Johnson, the mischief of Bessie Smith or the joy of Mahalia Jackson. [Jun 2003, p.94]- Alternative Press
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- Alternative Press
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Once you get inside this static, it's the ideal place to hang out. [Oct 2009, p.106]- Alternative Press
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On Habitual Leviathans, the group are more powerful than ever: but it’s a confident power that requires minimal chest thumping.- Alternative Press
- Posted Mar 26, 2013
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- Alternative Press
Posted Apr 26, 2013 -
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Settle is a rare animal: an EDM album that actually flows like an album should. Listening to it, there's a feeling that as much thought went into the track sequencing as went into the sequenced rhythms.- Alternative Press
- Posted Jun 5, 2013
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Sonically, it’s practically Sea Change Part II. Musical choices are almost identical—bells, swelling cinematic strings, ample harmonies--but Hansen’s voice doesn’t sound quite so sad.- Alternative Press
- Posted Feb 18, 2014
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Researching the Blues is more like a graduate dissertation on power pop, and should be required listening. [Sep 2012, p.94- Alternative Press
Posted Aug 6, 2012 -
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The more realized updates of [Her Majesty] that crowd out the backed of Picaresque reveal a wit so bizarre and vaudevillian beauty so ultimately endearing that by the end, Meloy's sprawling form of theatrical folk has us all. [Apr 2005, p.116]- Alternative Press
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The album’s 10 songs are over and done in under 20 minutes. The impression they leave at the end of it all is huge.- Alternative Press
- Posted Apr 22, 2014
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The collaboration is far from perfect... but the players take plenty of risks, ultimately emerging with a new sense of discovery and a whiff of greatness. [Feb 2006, p.120]- Alternative Press
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It's impressively well-wrought music, though no longer as instantly engaging, requiring several listens before its charms truly take shape. [Apr 2011, p.122]- Alternative Press
Posted Mar 11, 2011 -
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Guitarist Brian Izzi is given room to throw in engaging staccato wrist flicks or caveman his way through a down-picked sequence while vocalist Ryan McKenney is able to focus on exorcising his demons without worrying about time and tempo changes. [Jul 2014, p.103]- Alternative Press
Posted Jun 27, 2014 -
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It's the little touches that make Daydream so appealing. [Nov 2006, p.190]- Alternative Press
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Avatar is further proof that Comets On Fire are one of the most relevant bands of this decade. [Sep 2006, p.214]- Alternative Press
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It doesn't really ever quite rise above excellently pleasant, yet it's remarkably consistent, musically varied and occasionally, endearingly specific. [Aug 2013, p.90]- Alternative Press
Posted Jul 3, 2013 -
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New Leaves benfits from Kinsells'a vibrant looping and somber monotone lyricism. [Nov 2009]- Alternative Press
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Sycamore has plenty of upbeat rockers to counterbalance its moodier moments. [Jan 2008, p.128]- Alternative Press
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It's an album that holds nothing back. [Apr 2017, p.82]- Alternative Press
- Posted Mar 15, 2017
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You can feel that relaxed swagger throughout Moms thanks to some of Seim's slinkiest funk rhythms, and the giddy arena-rock guitar antics the pair allow to pop up throughout the proceedings. [Oct 2012, p.90]- Alternative Press
Posted Sep 20, 2012 -
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What separates Cut Copy from the retro-electro-pop pack is the mixing prowess of French house maestro Philippe Zdar. [Oct 2004, p.146]- Alternative Press
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A sprawling, 17-song, 64-minute monster that is without a doubt the finest music these three artists--vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and bassist Jeremy Davis--have ever made.- Alternative Press
- Posted Apr 4, 2013
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Tracks like “Balance The Odds” and “No Love Lost” dip cautiously into the metal sphere, breaking the EP out of its more rigid beatdown vibe.- Alternative Press
- Posted May 3, 2017
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Shed's a wonderfully rough and ambitious re-introduction from Title Fight that occasionally belies the band's youth. [Jun 2011, p.111]- Alternative Press
Posted Jul 6, 2011 -
- Alternative Press
Posted Feb 15, 2012 -
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A gorgeous set of spectral, ambitious and carefully crafted songs. [Jun 2006, p.188]- Alternative Press
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Envy have been around for nearly 20 years, so calling them the Japanese Sigur Ros feels like cheap shorthand--and yet, Recitation operates on that same plateau, its scale just as majestic. [Nov 2010, p.112]- Alternative Press
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Rachel's create classical music for people who listen to bands like Boards Of Canada. [Nov 2003, p.100]- Alternative Press
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Understated but never anemic, Sunny Border Blue's tales of love, family and growth succeed largely due to Hersh's masterful acoustic guitar. [#154, p.81]- Alternative Press