- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Aug 19, 2014The Wytches show some genuine promise on Annabel Dream Reader, but they need to come up with a few more ideas of their own in addition to the many clear influences they draw from.
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Aug 28, 2014The best tracks, like Burn Out The Bruise and Wire Frame Mattress, possess the lyrical degradation and sludgy rhythms of the early grunge ethos, if being tossed around with the surfing-a-graveyard sounds of L.A. antecedents from right before grunge, notably the Flesheaters and the Gun Club.
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Aug 26, 2014It’s not that The Wytches aren’t capable of ballads or contemplative space, it’s just that they haven’t found a way to do so in a way half as uniquely or powerfully as they have the big, explosive stuff.
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Aug 20, 2014At once fragile and boisterous, screaming and wailing, kicking at walls then curled up against them, Annabel Dream Reader is far more accomplished than a debut should be.
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Aug 26, 2014The Wytches have proved themselves a genuinely intriguing proposition, one with far more up their sleeves than just straight-up punk raucousness, but that also have evidently not quite got a handle on how best to present themselves on record, either--given that this is their first effort, though, that’s entirely forgivable.
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Aug 22, 2014Annabel Dream Reader feels like the soundtrack to a Tarantino film.
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MagnetAug 19, 2014Their command of sonic mood is commendable, but without something more to grab hold of, Annabel Dream Reader is just a relentless gut-punch. [No. 112, p.61]
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MojoSep 12, 2014A riotous union of scabrous '60s punk, resonant surf licks and grimy, narcotic song-craft. [Oct 2014, p.94]
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Aug 28, 2014Drummer Gianni Honey and bassist Daniel Rumsey create a magnificently grungy smear of grinding fuzz, before Bell’s squalling guitar adds just the right amount of 1950s style terror to proceedings. And there are sufficient quantities of those sort of moments to make this a very fine debut.
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Aug 26, 2014When The Wytches employ a lighter ‘Suck It And See’-era Arctic Monkeys touch they’re capable of ‘Wire Frame Mattress’ and ‘Track 13’, exceptional songs full of both melody and menace.
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Aug 26, 2014Anyone weaned on the fizzy punk abandon of Bleach-era Nirvana--that holy union of feedback-dappled punk on metal--will identify almost rapturously with The Wytches’ studied homage.
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Aug 27, 2014Outclassed by their own ambition, the band has aimed Annabel Dream Reader toward the lofty heights of Poe’s glum, fog-shrouded majesty--and winds up hitting, at best, late-period Tim Burton.
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Sep 10, 2014The album fails to suspend disbelief. In the end, Annabel Dream Reader is mere pulp fiction.
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Q MagazineAug 29, 2014Rough, scuzzy and rasping, there's plenty within its tattered edges to enjoy. [Oct 2014, p.120]
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Sep 2, 2014This is indeed an astonishing and absolutely infectious debut album: the urgency that each and every track is communicated with makes even the smallest detail surface as necessary and never misplaced.
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Aug 21, 2014This is fun, but lacks the variety or genuine edge of their influences to grab a listener by the lapels and hold their attention throughout, whether they like it or not.
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Aug 19, 2014Although this debut LP might have its weaknesses, it might also be a sign of greater things to come.
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UncutAug 19, 2014Bell's racked howl brings a hardcore intensity to it all, but there's bags of melodic nous just below the scorched surface. [Sep 2014, p.81]
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Under The RadarSep 5, 2014An immensely fun, possibly somewhat tongue-in-cheek trip. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.81]