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Like previous albums, this one is full of sharp, sudden observations, rueful admissions of failure and surprising sweetness.
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Like each of Owen Ashworth’s wondrous works before it, Etiquette is intimate, often sorrowful, bedroom glitch-pop, but here it is more substantial.
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If Ashworth’s lyrical razorblade was blunted by the quaintness of Casiotone consistency before, his new compositional confidence allows its sharpness to shine and cut as deep as you could handle without running a bath.
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His most ambitious and diverse album yet.
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This album is as buzz-worthy as other similar acts like the Postal Service.
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Ashworth earns sympathy aplenty vocally, but his mechanical compositions occasionally jar awkwardly against his heartfelt outpourings.
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MojoExpands Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's frighteningly austere template to an almost symphonic level of opulence. [Jul 2006, p.102]
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Etiquette gives up the homemade purity of Casiotone's first few records, but it hasn't entirely gotten where it's going, either.
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Sure, the songs are serviceable, even great at times, but if you take away the new instruments, the tracks are spitting images of their younger brethren.
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This is nicely-conceived pop music that keeps things concise and interesting.
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The inclusion of guest vocalists... keeps Etiquette from engaging on the kind of one-on-one basis that made Pocket Symphonies for Lonely Subway Cars and Twinkle Echo such selfish pleasures.
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These are vignettes, quick glimpses into the melodramatic lives of individuals, and the short, abrupt musical handling matches this mode of lyric writing.
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The more ambitious arrangements, coupled with the cleaner sound separation the improved production affords, make Etiquette the most approachable Casiotone album to date, without any notable sacrifices.
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What stands out on Etiquette, what makes it so powerful, isn't the full instrumentation -- it's still not exactly a wall of sound -- it's the moving and earnest lyrics Ashworth deadpans over his dark, minimalist beats and minor chords.
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Under The RadarHis tunes are sparse and heartfelt. [#13, p.99]
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How you’ll come down on Etiquette depends, I suppose, on how interested you are in the tales of sad-sack twentysomethings.
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New Musical Express (NME)He dissects his 20-something malaise with a dry and eloquent wit like a K-Mart Morrissey. [6 May 2006, p.33]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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MihaiVSep 11, 2006Not a classic, but a good album nevertheless. Nice rock-electronic arrangements.