Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Over the course of 12 tracks and almost 50 minutes of music, there are hardly any dynamics to hold the listener's attention.
  2. Mojo
    90
    There's a narcotic quality to these drifting ballads, one that perfectly suits these shell shocked, terrorised times. As the world gears up for the Apocalypse, I shall take comfort in Bavarian Fruit Bread -- a very haunting, beautiful record. [Nov 2001]
  3. Sounds like one long song of wheezing harmonium and heavily echoed, slightly out-of-tune vocals.
  4. Alternative Press
    90
    Consistently intriguing, haunting and above all, very good. [Dec 2001, p.94]
  5. Spin
    70
    The song structures are Mazzy-like acoustic webs that gingerly frame her longings. [Dec 2001, p.162]
  6. 100
    A warm serving of elegant late-night ballads that infuse acoustic and pedal-steel guitars with back-porch rhythms and arrangements.
  7. 100
    It's magical and mysterious, compelling and complex.
  8. Like all of Mazzy Star's releases, Bavarian Fruit Bread works well as a mood piece and makes good background music, but it doesn't reward close listening.
  9. Uncut
    80
    Slower than slow, softer than soft, the songs acquire an accumulative resonance. [Dec 2001, p.116]
  10. Bavarian Fruit Bread comes with the same warning as most of the winter season's baked goods -- it's rich, warm and full of flavor, but overindulgence will result in unplanned napping.
  11. The Wire
    50
    Sandoval's overly stylised vocals really start to grate over the distance of a whole LP. [#213, p.65]
  12. Q Magazine
    60
    The glacial tones and chimes that the Velvet Underground modelled on Sunday Morning are invoked once too often. But, beyond this, Sandoval's sedated, spellbound voice remains a remarkable presence. [Nov 2001]
  13. Sandoval has a voice quite unlike almost any other and perfectly suited to stark, narcoleptic laments, which is what this, with a couple of curious-if-brief instrumental diversions, delivers on a regular basis.
  14. 'Bavarian Fruit Bread' represents a towering piece of morphine-induced self-indulgence.
  15. Magnet
    70
    Her built-in fanbase will exult in the sulky ruminations found here. [#52, p.101]

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