The Independent on Sunday (UK)'s Scores
- Music
For 789 reviews, this publication has graded:
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57% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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40% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 71
Highest review score: | One Day I'm Going To Soar | |
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Lowest review score: | Last Night on Earth |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 495 out of 789
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Mixed: 280 out of 789
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Negative: 14 out of 789
789
music
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Critic Score
It's a less distinctive incarnation, but as evidenced by the stutteringly propulsive "Ye Ye", hardly less hypnotic.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 8, 2012
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- Critic Score
Big only because Arcade Fire think big, Reflektor stretches stadium rock’s reach in the acts of self-reinvention and revitalisation. Now that’s entertainment.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 28, 2013
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- Critic Score
Contact is shamelessly allusive, never remotely challenging and characterised by a get-to-the-chorus immediacy.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 31, 2012
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- Critic Score
Funny, warm, eloquent, dynamic, oddly soulful and technically delicious. An unremitting joy.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
Posted Dec 12, 2013 -
- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 24, 2014
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- Critic Score
If H&LA's 2008 debut was an ideal accompaniment to the clubland chaos, then Blue Songs is the gentlest of comedowns.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 15, 2011
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- Critic Score
R.E.M's 15th album could trade places with almost any of the previous 14.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 7, 2011
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- Critic Score
Baird's own rather fabulous acoustic is garnished with touches of dobro, pedal-steel or electric, over which her wisp of a voice, and words, hang in a vapour.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 26, 2011
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- Critic Score
Interesting to see that a few of the unused songs from the period (1978) push the released material for quality.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 23, 2011
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- Critic Score
This covers album maybe a joyous blast of buzzsaw pop, but you just know that the live shows will be even better.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 14, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 3, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 7, 2011
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- Critic Score
WTR is a classy bit of radio-friendly Mercury-bait which highlights Dangerfield's development as a songwriter.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 27, 2011
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- Critic Score
They're reunited with vocalist N'Dea Davenport but don't really need her, their dressing-up-to-go-out groove being the thing.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 2, 2013
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- Critic Score
The Glaswegian band's chosen style this time around, namely dark vintage synth pop (early Human League) and scratchy, spindly post-punk (Wire, the Cure), matches the mood and subject matter perfectly.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 14, 2011
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- Critic Score
Oasis minus the organ-grinder needn't be an entirely horrific prospect.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 1, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 8, 2013
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- Critic Score
Fusion fans might be confused but as a sentimental affirmation of melody it's Metheny to the core.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 27, 2011
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- Critic Score
While it may, at times, sound a little too familiar--A&F is almost good enough to banish the memory of the dozen or so albums--influenced by grams not Parsons--since.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 10, 2011
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- Critic Score
With its flutes, xylophones, mandolins, a truly incongruous mention of Superman III and, not least, Martin's own lilting delivery, it also has a fair quantity of charm.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 27, 2012
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- Critic Score
While Wagner's voice is not always up to it, Tidwell's authentic country pipes are the real revelation here.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 28, 2011
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- Critic Score
This one feels much more like a group searching for a sound together, even if the sound once belonged in a Venn diagram linking Led Zep, Deep Purple and Dio-era Sabbath. And it rocks most periodly.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 26, 2011
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- Critic Score
It finds the singer in meditative mood--this is, by some distance, the least playful Björk album--and, amid soundscapes made from tinkling harps and bells and deep electronic burps and farts, she's an uncharacteristically discreet presence, a humble narrator of the wider story she's trying to tell.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 10, 2011
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- Critic Score
Pervaded by children's laughter, this is a lovely departure from the Mambazo norm, as befits the quest it reflects.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 28, 2011
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- Critic Score
Their command of "neeeooow" noises suggests a schooling in retro rave, and their cover of the Jets' "Crush" turns the sugary original into something superbly sinister and stalker-ish.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 16, 2011
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- Critic Score
There's a childlike sense of adventure and fun about his sampladelic approach.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 6, 2011
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- Critic Score
Black Rainbows isn't all-out kick-ass noise but, by turns, spindly and fuzzy, smooth and angular.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 29, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 22, 2013
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- Critic Score
Should you be struck by a nostalgic mood yourself, Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da is a Madness album like they used to make 'em.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 16, 2012
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- Critic Score
Either way, we get what we always get: the analogue rendition of a stick of Southern yarns, long on observation, short of syllable and rough as your old boots.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 22, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 10, 2011
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- Critic Score
Here, Beam adds funky Stevie Wonder synths to the mix. And marimba. Lots of marimba.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 26, 2011
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- Critic Score
A feast of vulnerable balladry with a political heart and, audibly, much surrounding air.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 5, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 26, 2011
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- Critic Score
There's a master at work here and if he finds his filter he'll no doubt lose some of that fairy dust.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 12, 2011
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- Critic Score
Isbell is an accomplished and serious songwriter and what keeps Here We Rest from being the stonker it so nearly is is not the writing but the slightness of his voice – and his band.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 18, 2011
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- Critic Score
As befits a novelist, the songs are narratives concerned with the big issues. Life, death, that sort of thing. Good record.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 25, 2011
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- Critic Score
It's all very gladsome, technically fine and will lift your day. But, as with all such heritaged musics, it won't make your day over. Pleasant though.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 23, 2011
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- Critic Score
It doesn't always hit the spot, but at least he's firing at more interesting targets than the usual renta-rapper.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 30, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 22, 2011
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- Critic Score
It recalls MGMT before the wheels came off. Which is no bad thing.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 18, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 14, 2011
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- Critic Score
The voice (Joni Mitchell meets Anna Calvi), is as tough and tender as before but the music now acts as a bouncy counterpoint to songs with lyrics such as "death is a hard act to follow", blurring the line between unsettling and uplifting nicely.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 12, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 15, 2011
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- Critic Score
He wisely sticks to the spoken word for much of the album, whether delivering the sinister inner monologue of a stalker or a robot-voiced attempt to advocate Transcendental Mediation.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 7, 2011
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- Critic Score
Tracks such as "Boiling Water" wouldn't sound out of place in a naff holiday resort. There are notable exceptions, though, such as "Fire" feat Ms Dynamite.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 4, 2011
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- Critic Score
What matters is that the I Monster team have cooked up a production that matches our expectations of a League LP.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 11, 2011
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- Critic Score
Consists entirely of tasteful campfire-folk covers of seasonal classics.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 12, 2011
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- Critic Score
Tracks such as "The Bay" have enough to get heads nodding, but if you hear this on a dancefloor, it'll be courtesy of a seriously hard-working remixer.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Apr 21, 2011
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- Critic Score
This is meditative, spacious, profoundly dark music, evidently haunted by Miles Davis's early-1970s excursions into free electronica, as well as the wolves of the Nordic imagination.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 17, 2011
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- Critic Score
See You There revisits his classics as well as finding room for one new track and a beauty of an alternate version of "What I Wouldn't Give."- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 12, 2013
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- Critic Score
It's half George Harrison, half Keith West.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 22, 2011
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- Critic Score
The King Of Limbs, named after a famous oak in the Savernake forest near the studio where In Rainbows was made, is good but not great.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 22, 2011
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- Critic Score
Stephen Malkmus is back making amiable but unchallenging off-kilter country rock songs.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 22, 2011
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- Critic Score
Not really "folk" at all but a programme of music for solo guitar (and occasional clarinet) drawing on three centuries of complex harmony; or at least the harmony which appeals to the gruff old Pentangle picker.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 10, 2011
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- Critic Score
Two tracks truly warm the cockles. And if the rest is merely pleasant, hey, season of goodwill and all that.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 13, 2011
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- Critic Score
Whether this Blue Note debut featuring Robert Glasper is better than his two albums with Brownswood is moot, but the best tracks--"Trouble", "Heaven on the Ground", "Do You Feel"--are very good indeed.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 11, 2013
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- Critic Score
Wonderful Glorious alternates between distorted rock and freewheeling country-pop interludes.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 4, 2013
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- Critic Score
Fragrant Word has killer synthpop tunes buried within it, but too often you wonder how much better a record this would have been if they quit dicking around and just gave you the song.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 21, 2012
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- Critic Score
Singer-songwriter Emma-Lee Moss and Ash frontman Tim Wheeler, a couple in real life, join musical forces and attempt, valiantly and with not inconsiderable success, to breathe new life into that stalest of stale old genres: the Christmas song.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Dec 13, 2011
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- Critic Score
From dancefloor tracks such as "Shake It" to a lover's rock vibe on "Only Thing Missing Was You", Franti has made an eclectic, conscious album- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 18, 2011
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- Critic Score
Equal parts Byrds, Beatles and Burritos, this kicks away the cobwebs nicely.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 20, 2011
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For the most part this is a glorious hymn to the art of playing together, of which Lennon would surely approve.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 27, 2011
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- Critic Score
The result is not, however, a revolution in his sound but a refinement.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 26, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 24, 2011
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- Critic Score
It is, almost inevitably, charming.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 7, 2011
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- Critic Score
It's essentially 1980s indie jangle with hints of Afro-pop and Northern Soul, carrying echoes of Orange Juice.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Mar 31, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 30, 2011
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- Critic Score
Holland sings songs of discombobulation and wonder, and all is mannered but also naturalistic.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 6, 2011
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Scratch beneath the surface sheen of It's All True and all kinds of depths emerge.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 6, 2011
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“Organic moonshine music” she calls it, and no one could argue with that.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 12, 2013
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 3, 2011
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- Critic Score
There’s singing going on, all right, it sounds lovely, but little is conveyed other than loveliness. However, there’s no arguing with their authenticity or technical excellence.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 26, 2013
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- Critic Score
As an 19-track collection of rarities from the period 2003-present, TTEC is necessarily a mixed bag of styles and qualities.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 26, 2013
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The music treads a gingerly path between the lighter textures of honky-tonk and a sort of indie lounge-pop. Charming.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Sep 12, 2011
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Almost every track sounds like a potential single in an indie rock/Americana kind of way.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 31, 2012
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Only the more straightforwardly poppy numbers disappoint, with power-ballad manqué “Crescendo” a particular anomaly.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 6, 2013
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With guests such as Jack White and a surprisingly bearable Norah Jones, Rome makes a fine fist of recreating the elegance of prime 1960s Euro-pop. All good, no bad, and never ugly.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 16, 2011
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Brilliant, frustrating, thrilling and irritating. In other words, exactly what we’ve come to expect from an Edward Sharpe album.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 26, 2013
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Occasionally the listener is carried away on the soulful cusp of Gonjasufi's scraggly voice, but more often than not they are simply overwhelmed.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jan 23, 2012
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- Critic Score
They unapologetically rip into this album with a pulsating and mangled electro-pop opener called "D-Day", and rarely, if ever, lapse into giving people a poor photocopy of Parallel Lines.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 5, 2011
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The main signifier is Peyroux's sound, now as downhome as a chicken shack and artfully haunted as a Cassandra Wilson session. Tasteful.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jul 12, 2011
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- Critic Score
Loud guitars are everywhere, bucked by riffing horns, and the general vibe is testosteronal and sleeveless. He is a rippingly good player.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 12, 2011
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- Critic Score
All diva froideur and drum machine snap, it nevertheless transcends pastiche via a pervasive air of murky ambiguity.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 8, 2011
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- Critic Score
While nothing grates, all it really achieves is to make you want to hear Hank sing them.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 3, 2011
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- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 17, 2011
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- Critic Score
This is another acting job, in a sense, and Laurie's faux-Southern drawl grates a little, but he's assembled a band of N'awlins old hands to add authenticity.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 12, 2011
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- Critic Score
Composer Joe Acheson seems more interested in texture than development and you can long for a discordant voice, but as head-nodding experiences go, this is pretty good.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Oct 23, 2012
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His second solo album, while often truly horrible, is also fascinating and funny.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted May 16, 2011
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It borders on the twee. That it doesn't cross the frontier is the reason this is worth your attention.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 17, 2011
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The effect is softly inclusive without being entirely bland, and even if Holland's poetry doesn't ring your bell as poetry, then it certain works in this context as sound-art.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Aug 22, 2011
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It's a little too polished for the Oh Brother... crowd, but fans of Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss should take note.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Feb 24, 2011
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By Ben Gibbard's own admission "a much less guitar-centric" record than usual, it is therefore, if only by default, the closest thing yet to a follow-up to Give Up by Gibbard's other concern, the Postal Service, although it's more about pretty pianos than effervescent synths.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Jun 1, 2011
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It's a jukebox-jumpin' take on straight-up Dolly with a smile behind its eyes and a rockabillyish skip in its step.- The Independent on Sunday (UK)
- Posted Nov 21, 2011
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