- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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This ranks with the best work of one of America's most original musical visionaries.
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BlenderIt sounds half-heard no matter how many times you hear it. [Sep 2006, p.142]
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Though the tracks are lengthy, they’re not indulgent but patient, moving at the pace of Frank Sinatra’s September of My Years (1965) rather than the National’s Alligator (2005).
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It never really builds steam until the end, when it is almost too late.
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"Damaged" is as nuanced, temperate and contemplative as its predecessor.
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Damaged... rises to the same dizzying heights achieved by their last few long-players.
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FilterWonderful. [#21, p.94]
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MagnetDamaged excels in what Lambchop does best, which is to gather up a dozen-plus musicians and get them to play as little as possible. [#73, p.98]
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MojoAn album of colossal strength and maturity. [Sep 2006, p.104]
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Are they a country band playing alt.rock or an alt.rock band playing country? These questions are pointless. They are simply and sublimely Lambchop, and we are lucky to have them.
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New Musical Express (NME)Even more subdued than usual. [12 Aug 2006, p.32]
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Even though the songwriting's tight, the uniformly delicate touch of adult contemporary arrangements will leave you struggling to stay awake till the album's end.
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Damaged is a transcendent record - poetic, mysterious, witty, wise and at times so musically grand that it changes the colour of a room and the weight of the air.
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Damaged is lovely but dull in spots, lacking the fuck-all adventurousness of previous albums.
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'Damaged' is a hugely welcome addition to Lambchop's now frighteningly impressive back catalogue, and an album with few limitations.
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Lambchop have long been one of America’s greatest bands, and Damaged is their greatest achievement.
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The album rewards multiple listens with its sonic depth and subtle structural beauty. It has followed Lamchop tradition and evolved from its predecessor, but it lacks the unruly attitude that makes the band distinct.
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Q MagazineThe arrangements here are written specifically with a touring quartet in mind, adding ever greater layers of haunting melancholy and soaring grace. [Sep 2006, p.109]
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Damaged is quintessential Wagner: a ponderous, carved-wood gut-punch of a record that finds hope in the mundane details of everyday life, even as the big worldly picture comes crashing down with alarming force.
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SpinKurt Wagner's conversational croak is, charitably put, an acquired taste. [Sep 2006, p.106]
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You could spend an age listing and describing the musical wealth of Damaged... Better just to listen to it, soak it all in, than fail with words.
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Like the 2002 album Is A Woman, Damaged scales back for an opaque set of heartbroken songs inspired by, in Wagner's words, "deeply personal experience."
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Damaged isn’t the most tuneful record Wagner and company have made.
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A profound melancholy suffuses the elegant and often sublime Damaged.
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Lazy Saturday mornings are meant to be had with this album.
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UncutA brave, beautiful record. [Sep 2006, p.76]
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Under The RadarAnother solid if somewhat interchangeable album. [Summer 2006, p.82]
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UrbThe Nashville crew's sound has slowly aged from alt-country to Stax-styled soul and now brooding ballads. [Jul/Aug 2006, p.122]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 11
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Mixed: 2 out of 11
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Negative: 0 out of 11
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AdilO.Sep 4, 2006Soothing and mysterious. The kind of music you'd want to spin after a hard day's work.
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CablesSep 2, 2006like many critics pointed out, it's lyrically briliant yet it's ac arrangements make it alarmingly dull at times.
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madslAug 28, 2006