- Record Label: Loma Vista
- Release Date: Jul 28, 2017
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Oct 5, 2017Black Mile has already won your heart, and you know that it is going to be one of those albums that stay with you forever; a byproduct of life events coinciding with its release and an uncanny relation to Hull’s lyrics.
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Kerrang!Jul 25, 2017This is a painstakingly composed work of art--and an absolute masterpiece at that. [15 Jul 2017, p.50]
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Jul 26, 2017The songs on Black Mile are expansive, textured, each one like a painting in a distinct style; the layers of Simple Math are back with a vengeance, but instead of the empty palazzios and antique wooden drawers of that album, we're left with mineshafts. Pitch black, filthy, bottomless. Tempting.
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Jul 28, 2017Based on the nuanced opacity of these lyrics and the artful moodiness of the music, the answer will likely remain an elusive puzzle for listeners to ponder. Thankfully, Manchester Orchestra have made an album well worth pondering over.
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Jul 26, 2017There's no song on Black Mile like "Wolves at Night" or "April Fool," the kind of high-energy howler fit for an EA Sports game, but their efforts have paid off with an artistic triumph, the kind worth regarding as a creative masterwork among their collection.
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Jul 25, 2017Every aspect of A Black Mile to the Surface is ambitious and rarely, if ever, does it falter.
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Jul 25, 2017Manchester Orchestra are no strangers to reinvention, but this is a bold step. It’s a grower of a sound: folky yet enormous, like Fleet Foxes at their most widescreen, and with no immediate hooks (“The Gold” is close, though). When they do emerge, they’re not easy.
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Aug 2, 2017A Black Mile to the Surface may get knocked for being a downer, an almost self-conscious one. But for all the melodrama, there’s plenty of smart arrangements and well-crafted musical ideas that give the album plenty of gravitas.
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Jul 31, 2017By consciously interrogating everything they do, they’ve created something that doesn’t need a condescending suffix to justify its existence. It’s a new high-water mark for the band, and one well worth the pain to reach.
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Jul 25, 2017Full of textured, wide-screen soundscapes, the record dips its feet in electronic waters, yet retains the emotional vulnerability that has always defined the Atlanta band. There’s an extra dose of sinister unease, too, especially on ‘Lead, SD’ and ‘The Moth’.
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Jul 25, 2017A Black Mile To The Surface does not disappoint. It may not be a no-hitter (nothing here is as immediately visceral as, say, “Shake It Off” or as instantly gorgeous as “Simple Math,” perhaps), but the band still looks and sounds strong.
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Sep 6, 2017They’re on more familiar ground, with an emotional take on alternative indie rock inspired by the frontman’s new experiences in fatherhood.
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Aug 7, 2017The result is Manchester Orchestra’s most confounding, thrilling, and unintentionally loopy album yet.
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Jul 31, 2017This album was inevitable, and while it lacks the substance of old, it's still full of.
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Jul 31, 2017A Black Mile to the Surface is not ultimately the kind of cohesive and singularly classic album that Manchester Orchestra has shown the ability to create. However, the bold new steps Andy Hull and company take on it seem likely to be the building blocks upon which they build their next classic.
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Q MagazineAug 3, 2017The Grocery [is] riveting. If Manchester Orchestra are guilty of being a tad too serene elsewhere, it must also be noted that sounding beautiful is a good problem to have. [Sep 2017, p.113]
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Jul 28, 2017The band balance loud and quiet better than ever on LP5, with the one-two of ‘The Maze’ and first single ‘The Gold’ that opens the record the perfect example. ‘The Alien’, meanwhile, is fiddly and intriguing, showing that A Black Mile To The Surface could transport the band to an entirely new world.
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Jul 27, 2017While there are oddball lyrical themes throughout, it orbits a grownup indie rock world.
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Aug 24, 2017For a band where constructing songs into rocket-fueled crescendos is their biggest strength, too often does A Black Mile to the Surface fail to take advantage of any momentum it builds, often taking the wrong fork on an ascent to a splendid finale.
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Jul 28, 2017There’s some beautiful songwriting here, but it’s buried beneath the smudges of its producers.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 63 out of 72
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Mixed: 3 out of 72
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Negative: 6 out of 72
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Jul 28, 2017
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Oct 12, 2020One of my personal favorites over the past decade, this album is powerful, both lyrically and emotionally. A must listen by all accounts.
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May 20, 2018