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Angus & Julia Stone
by
Angus & Julia Stone Image
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 16 Ratings

  • Summary: The third full-length release for the Australian brother-and-sister duo was produced by Rick Rubin.
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Top Track

A Heartbreak
I met your parents They were lying but falling in love I met your parents They were dying but falling in love Girl, you're just a child A... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. The 405
    Aug 6, 2014
    80
    Their latest adds a number of new facets to their performance, without diluting what makes their reality any less romantic.
  2. The Line of Best Fit
    Aug 6, 2014
    75
    Although the album is perhaps two songs too long, Angus & Julia Stone succeeds because the whole outnumbers the sum, and does so with a light-touch intensity. Rubin might not be breaking new ground here but he’s mining precious stones.
  3. New Musical Express (NME)
    Aug 6, 2014
    70
    Their records once had a two-sided feel, Angus' songs lacking the drama of his sister's, Julia lacking her brother's restraint. Here, particularly on 'Death Defying Acts' and 'Little Whiskey', they've got the balance just right.
  4. musicOMH.com
    Aug 11, 2014
    70
    Angus & Julia Stone have succeeded in sounding like a lo-fi Australian indie version of late ’70s Fleetwood Mac, and although this record is no Rumours it is without doubt the Sydney siblings’ best effort yet.
  5. The Observer (UK)
    Aug 6, 2014
    60
    Certainly their music, an easy-on-the-ear hybrid of blissed-out Laurel Canyon folk and eerie MOR, functions exactly as it did before.... What producer Rick Rubin has added, though, is power.
  6. Q Magazine
    Sep 3, 2014
    60
    It's hard not to conclude that it's Rubin's strong tiller hand giving thee 13 songs new-found clarity, focus and energy that too often drifted away from the Stones in a cloud of patchouli when left alone. [Oct 2014, p.120]
    All this publication's reviews
  7. The Guardian
    Aug 6, 2014
    40
    The Australian duo's music has a languorous, slow-burn quality to it, and the pretty Wherever You Are shows off their understated vocals, but too often things feels very sanitised.

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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. MusicClubCZ
    Aug 28, 2014
    8
    Brother-sister duo, Angus and Julia, self-titled album. Lovely warm indie pop music reflecting sunsets. I think they did really great work atBrother-sister duo, Angus and Julia, self-titled album. Lovely warm indie pop music reflecting sunsets. I think they did really great work at first 5 tunes. Rest of record then it's sadly not that good and rest of record is still good but much more boring. Yes. It really sounds like today's Fleetwood Mac nevertheless it's honest album. You really believe what musicians playing and singing to you. This is what you expected but what you don't get every time when you listen music of today's. That's maby little unique I think. This release seems like best album of the band’s life. Or not?… Expand
  2. JuliaGulia
    Sep 15, 2014
    8
    It’s 2014, Hip-Hop and Hip-Pop are all the rage. Miley Cyrus,Nicki Minaj,Taylor Swift,Iggy Azalea, and Ariana Grande dominate the musicIt’s 2014, Hip-Hop and Hip-Pop are all the rage. Miley Cyrus,Nicki Minaj,Taylor Swift,Iggy Azalea, and Ariana Grande dominate the music charts, and computer programs,heavy bass and auto-tuner are a musicians best friend. Angus and Julia Stone are the complete antithesis of everything those artists are and represent. The Australian natives are acoustic driven Indie-Folk for starters, and in addition to singing and doing harmonies they both play multiple instruments. The musicianship showed in their 3rd album makes me believe that is is indeed an art form again.

    I’m a quasi new fan of this brother and sister duo, and by quasi I mean since 2009 when they released their 2nd album, “Down the Way.” I was one of those people who listened to “Big Jet Plane” over and over again. I couldn’t get enough of that song or the entire album for that matter.

    Now after a hiatus they’ve released their 3rd full length album (with sixteen songs), “Angus and Julia Stone” and it’s as unassuming as straightforward as it’s self titled name. It starts out strong with their most popular single, “A Heartbreak.” It features rampant drums, with a marching bass-line and a rather subdued and morose sounding chord progression. All the while Julie Stone is crooning ,” I met you’re parents they were lying about falling in love… Girl you’re just a child, a heartbreak.”

    "Grizzly Bear" another single features a slow beat with a slow bass line and an almost blues oriented guitar. However, in this song Angus has taken the lead on vocals the result is a very melodic.

    My favorite and the last single on the album “Heart Beats Slow” picks up the pace a bit with faster drums and guitar. Here both alternate singing in the verses and then combine efforts on the choruses. Lyrically this is one of the strongest in the album and the most convincing, “Well you say I move too fast, so that you can hardly see. You said I move too fast. How can you be with me? No we wont let it into the kitchen, no we won’t let it into the house. We won’t let it into the front door, because it’s burning her pretty little heart.”

    "Death Defying Acts" by far showcases Julia Stone’s vocals like you’ve never heard them before. A descending chord progression,vibrato and trills it thrills, ‘Oh my.’ All instruments are somewhat muted as she soulfully belts ,"I will perform a death defying miracle. For someone with the chemicals to believe. I am brave, but gravely understated. I can’t save you from what you’ve taken and leave." Pure poetry.

    "Little Whiskey" strays a little far from their folk base and into borderline southern rock with Angus Stone’s crooning vocals and guitar effects. It kind of sounds like a Kings of Leon song, especially with lyrics like, “Pour a little whiskey before I head home. Poor lovesick child. There’s still fire in your belly and you’re heart’s still wild.” That band is made of relatives, which seems to be a winning combination.

    There are points in the album that seem to drag on forever like, “Other Things,” “Please you,” and “Where ever you are,” but even these still articulate a wonderful sense of longing and sadness.

    If “Death by defying acts” is Julia Stone’s best song, “Crash and Burn” is Angus Stones. It starts out really slow and then builds. Soaring guitar solos accompany him as he sings, “Will you come back if I I turn and run? Will you come find me if I crash and burn?”

    The placement of “All this love” seems a bit out of place as the second to last song. It’s one of the fastest up beat songs in the entire album. The lyrics even convey a positive message, “There’s all this love if you need it. You take the high road and I will come along. I will follow you…There’s all this love if you need it.” In light of that I think this song should have also been a single.

    As strange as the placement of the 2nd to last song is, the very last one “Roses” seems an odd place to leave the compilation. It’s slow and drone like, but overall the album leaves a good taste in my mouth. They take melancholy and turn it into something original and engaging. Especially considering all the things coming out in mainstream music now a days. Originality is something that is hard to accomplish and come by of late. I’ll take it where I can get it. (Or hear it)

    Angus and Julia Stone are on tour to promote this latest endeavor, and will be at Urban Lounge October 14th.

    Click here for tickets

    http://www.angusandjuliastone.com/

    http://littlewredwritinghood.tumblr.com/post/97550208995/angus-julia-stone-melt-hearts-with-latest-self-titled    … Expand
  4. jotaeseche
    Dec 29, 2014
    8
    Loyal to their very core style but willing to take new risks and add some rocky shoegazing power to their song structures, in Angus and JuliaLoyal to their very core style but willing to take new risks and add some rocky shoegazing power to their song structures, in Angus and Julia Stone the duo nicely combined Julia's drama, pain and anguish and Angus' simplicity and cleanliness, both in different songs and in even the same one. It sounds steady, there aren't many surprises. It doesn't disappoint, but it doesn't shake up either. Good record, good vibes.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

53
#53 Most Shared Album of 2014

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