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And Those Who Were Seen Dancing
by
And Those Who Were Seen Dancing Image
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The second full-length solo release for psych-pop singer-songwriter Tess Parks was recorded in London, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Paste Magazine
    May 24, 2022
    84
    And Those Who Were Seen Dancing certainly isn’t the first album to put a fresh spin on the psych aesthetic, but by shrugging off its constraints, Parks has left her own definitive mark on it.
  2. Uncut
    May 20, 2022
    80
    An album that feels charged by forward momentum while also embracing the comforting pulse of a locked groove. [Jul 2022, p.31]
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  3. Exclaim
    May 20, 2022
    80
    With heavy doses of Mellotron, downtempo breakbeats, electric piano, fuzzy guitars, family and fortitude, And Those Who Were Seen Dancing demands to be heard and felt.
  4. Under The Radar
    Jun 8, 2022
    75
    Her cool, laconic drawl works best when paired with coruscating guitars and it’s at those moments that the album really shines. Hopefully, it won’t be a decade until she releases another solo album, as she’s undoubtedly a gifted artist with much to offer.
  5. AllMusic
    May 20, 2022
    60
    The overall impression of Parks' second solo album is less a collection of tightly crafted songs than of a willowy chunk of music captured during its slow passage on the timeline. How appealing this is depends on one's proclivities, but there is enough ear candy here to hold the attention, at least for a little while.
  6. Mojo
    May 20, 2022
    60
    A few numbers tread too similar a beat; but then there's the gumshoe monologue of Brexit At Tiffany's and The Sergio Leone mash-up of Saint Michael - which is windswept, stately and might, just might be hopeful. [Jun 2022, p.91]
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. StevenX
    Apr 10, 2023
    7
    This album started out as if it wanted to put me to sleep, or give me heroin. Tess Parks averages 3 notes per song for the first twoThis album started out as if it wanted to put me to sleep, or give me heroin. Tess Parks averages 3 notes per song for the first two vaguely-conscious bluesy swirlers, and the sequence of those notes is so similar that you can lift the vocals from one song, put it in the other, and not really notice the difference. Her previous LP, "I Declare Nothing" with one Anton Newcombe on everything but said vocals, was full of this stuff, chord after chord played to death already elsewhere, vocals phoned in from the back of the opium den. Near the end of the third song here, though, actual backing vocals slide in, and I'll be damned if Parks doesn't wake up a little bit. By "Do You Pray?" a few songs later, the band is rocking and she's, while not a passion pit, a lot more awake. The arrangements become much more varied, even when Parks slides back into Lana-del-Rey-on-'Ludes mode here and there (yeah, I know, redundant). It's a hard fight at times - she goes back to square one vocally on "I See Angels", but the song is saved by a throbbing background that propels it farther than she would normally have taken it. By the time the set winds up with the beautiful, plaintive flow and ebb that is "Saint Michael", I'm damned if she hasn't won this round. Even when the band is locked into Brian Jonestown Massacre-like figures and drowning in reverb, this doesn't sound retro. The smoky world of Tess Parks is finally letting us further in, and we are better listeners for it. That such a relatively quiet album still manages to be leaps and bounds over her last quiet album is a big deal indeed. If she can keep this up she'll be her own genre, and anyone who wrote her off after the last album (me included) should be ashamed.… Expand

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