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Elvis Perkins In Dearland Image
Metascore
74

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

  • Summary: Elvis Perkins returns with the follow-up to his debut album with a full band.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Here, he dresses his music in full regalia--with whistles, horns, organs and marching-band drums--and it’s exquisite.
  2. Filter
    90
    Perkins is joined by a three-piece ensemble of multi-instrumentalists that do a great deal to boost his soulful ballads with circus-like arrangements, while putting a little extra pep in his step. [Winter 2009, p.96]
  3. Tackling weighty themes and wrestling difficult truths with aplomb, it ultimately emerges triumphant.
  4. Elvis Perkins in Dearland is an amusement park ride. It is more than a fan would expect from a sophomore effort, and likely to wind up on many a critic’s “top ten” list.
  5. Comprising organ, piano, upright bass and acoustic guitars, as well as the occasional fiddle or burst of New Orleans brass, the music wheezes and strolls with old-timey authenticity.
  6. 70
    A ponderous chain-gang stomp and some misty lyrics outline his limitations, but once again, Perkins' loss is our gain.
  7. Perkins clearly has stories to tell of difficult journeys travelled, but unfortunately it comes across as yet another Yank putting out the roadside campfire with dribble from his harmonica.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Nov 24, 2012
    10
    This is one of those rare albums that can change your life. I have had this album for over three years and every time I listen to it I findThis is one of those rare albums that can change your life. I have had this album for over three years and every time I listen to it I find something new. It is the only album I own that never gets old. Some have called it pretentious. I find it very poetic. The below lyric from the song Shampoo is something you would read in the best contemporary poetry of our time. Combine that with some of the most infectious music imaginable and you start to understand the power of this album:

    yellow is the color of my true love's crossbow, yellow is the color of the sun
    and black is the color of, a strangled rainbow
    that's the color of my loss.

    I am only sorry that Perkins has virtually disappeared from touring and music and I hope that he returns with more.
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