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At times warmly sunny and loose and at other times coolly subdued, Alive As You Are is undeniably personal, with a depth lacking in the group's previous reverb-soaked fuzz anthems.
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UncutAlive As You Are, then recalls a lot from the past, and recent past, but beyond that is simply crammed with great tunes like "Split Minute" and 18th Street Shuffle," the benign spell of which is more than the sum if the material's 1960s parts. [Sep 2010, p.91]
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This is an album to be held close to your heart and revered as psych-pop scripture.
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Alive As You Are is what west-coast rock 'n' roll is supposed to sound like.
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While fans of Darker My Love's earlier albums may be a bit put off by this sudden sea change, Alive as You Are marks a pleasant sonic shift for the band, offering anyone willing to listen a love letter to San Francisco's psych-pop past and the sounds of the paisley underground.
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Alive as You Are is a pleasant enough recording brimming with lyrical personality-a personality normally buried under DML's psychedelic drone.
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In the end, Alive As You Are is a polished and impressive effort that heralds DML's chameleon like musical ability by exemplifying you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks.
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Overall, this is an interesting departure from their work in the past, but hopefully, Darker My Love won't continue to drift further from the sound for which they are known.
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Although Darker My Love implements a laid-back style on Alive As You Are, the group still engages the listener and delivers a solid set.
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Overall, Alive As You Are's sea change is perhaps just a little too severe to fully engage with in one sitting, and despite the band's insistence this record represents a significant step forward, its retrogressive veneer casts something of a bewildering shadow.
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Under The RadarThe record as a whole sustains a breezy, lazy back porch vibe, and goes down as smoothly as a sip of vodka lemonade on a sunny California day. [Summer 2010, p.78]
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Familiarity is both Alive As You Are's strength and its main failing, but there are enough acid-soaked pop hooks of their own to last the summer.
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Q MagazineAlive As You Are is a harmony-packed, relaxed affair, reminiscent of mid-period Byrds and Tom Petty, with the influence of The Beatles often hovering near. [Sept. 2010, p. 114]
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On their third full-length album, Alive As You Are, the members of Darker My Love drop the whole neo-shoegaze, Jesus And Mary Chain worship of their first two albums and instead engage in a sampling of different '60s sounds.
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After a supreme early demonstration of pastiche, Alive As You Are's back half reveals a capable pop band writing capable pop songs.
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Alive as You Are makes it a very different band, but not a worse one. The arrangements, as always, are totally immersive.
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Darker My Love can do better if it wishes to show us how it can incorporate its skills into reshaping more challenging material that 2 and the Spaceland tapes have proven in a very convincing way.
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Where's the band's personality? Promises glimmer everywhere, as when off-kilter instrumental breaks start stabbing away at "18th Street," but the entire album eventually drifts past without delivering anything as sonically-or emotionally-provocative.
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MojoWhere 2008's 2 was frazzled and powerful, this one feels soporific, moderate, even a little slight. [Sep 2010 p.94]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 3
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Mixed: 0 out of 3
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Negative: 0 out of 3
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Sep 26, 2010
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Aug 26, 2010