Black Foliage: Animation Music
by The Olivia Tremor Control
  • Record Label: Flydaddy
  • Release Date: Mar 23, 1999
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Pitchfork
    91
    Insanely catchy '60s- inspired pop music in addition to sound collages, field recordings, drony ambience, cathartic noise, and outlandish production that makes Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" look like a cubicle divider.
  2. PopMatters
    90
    Time will tell, but Black Foliage has all the marks of a major pop masterpiece -- brilliant tunes, innovative arrangements, clever lyrics, a thoroughly adventurous spirit, and a musical depth that always reveals something new on repeated listenings.
  3. E! Online
    83
    So maybe Black Foliage can be a bit self-indulgent and uneven at times (the short connecting tracks that recur throughout the album, for example), but such missteps go along with a brimming imagination that boldly explores the outer limits of rock's subconscious.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    It's a sonic wonderland, and the jump-cut delirium is transporting. But as pop projectionists, the group might want to keep a keener eye on the focus.
  6. AllMusic
    80
    If the preceding Dusk at Cubist Castle was the Olivia Tremor Control's very own White Album, then the labyrinthine Black Foliage is their Smile -- it's an imploding masterpiece, a work teetering on the cliff's edge between genius and madness.
  7. The A.V. Club
    80
    Full of not-quite-familiar arrangements and you'd-swear-they-were-purloined specks of Sgt. Pepper, the album's many pleasures fly at the listener from every angle.
  8. L.A. Weekly
    80
    Amiable multi-instrumental pop shuffles in the hazy mode of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, gauzed with intricate four-part harmonies and a host of sound effects, bump up against loping, kitchen-sink ambientronic instro-ludes in albums that seem created somewhere outside of standard time by art students with a serious pop jones.
  9. Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
    67
    At its most generous, this may be the music of the young Brian Wilson's dysfunctional dreams. But at its most pretentious it's his bad trip.

Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best Album of 1999
8
#8 Most Discussed Album of 1999
9
#9 Most Shared Album of 1999

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 11
  3. Negative: 1 out of 11
  1. mvatcher35
    Sep 6, 2011
    8
    The point at which pretentious avant-garde nonsense and brilliant, brooding psychedelic pop combine to form an album that teeters on theThe point at which pretentious avant-garde nonsense and brilliant, brooding psychedelic pop combine to form an album that teeters on the precipice between pure perfection and pure annoyance.… Full Review »
  2. JimR
    Jan 12, 2006
    10
    This is a fantastic album by an underrated band. It is a worthy successor to Dusk At Cubist Castle. Black Foliage has great pop tunes and the This is a fantastic album by an underrated band. It is a worthy successor to Dusk At Cubist Castle. Black Foliage has great pop tunes and the experimental music is good. The Olivia Tremor Control is better than Neutral Milk Hotel in my opinion… Full Review »
  3. eded
    Jul 13, 2004
    10
    ... You're just a sleepy company, yeah, but that's alright... soundtrack to my last week in Vancouver, perfect
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