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A mighty fine album which neatly sidesteps the tired alt.country tag, 'Feast Of Wire' is an engaging musical road trip that you wish would never end.
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The best complete work the band has offered to date.
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PlanetIt's like drinking a cold one with Willie Nelson down Mexico way. [#3, p.87]
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Calexico has crafted an album that's rich in variety, yet still manages to maintain a cohesive sound throughout.
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Feast of Wire is a startlingly diverse album.
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An intriguing and often lovely album.
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Calexico provide drama, atmosphere, tension and tenderness in the 16 tracks here, not only because they have soul but because they're so good at their craft.
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Calexico have created their first genuinely masterful full-length, crammed with immediate songcraft, shifting moods and open-ended exploration.
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Conjures up an exotic, enchanting world populated with slide guitars, maracas, accordions, brass bands and late-night country crooning.
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BlenderThe songs aren't strong enough to hold the disparate influences together. [#13, p.91]
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This album solidifies their standing as one of the most endearingly idiosyncratic bands on the American scene.
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The WireCombining tight dynamics with the blurred intent of an impressionistic backwsh, some tracks rush by like vast landscapes, with individual features suddenly highlighted in freeze-frames. [#228, p.59]
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UncutTheir music is an intoxicatingly vivid evocation of the mythology of the American west and its Hispanic heritage, and Feast Of Wire lays down an optimistically early marker as one of the albums of the year. [Mar 2003, p.98]
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Although not every track here is of the highest quality, all sixteen tracks are woven together expertly.
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Sure, with so much to hear and such a range of styles, the album can take a couple of listens before it starts to bloom. That said, after these requisite spins, one can't help but admire how smoothly Feast of Wire glides from track to track, style to style.
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If you're a fan of their more experimental instrumental work, you'll find plenty to be interested in here, as the album as a whole feels a bit scattered.
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Entertainment WeeklySongs full of Sergio Leone set pieces and Mexicali blues. [14 Mar 2003, p.66]
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Feast of Wire is even more intricately arranged than The Black Light, though the sheer diversity of this album prevents it from approaching the grand gestalt of Black Light.
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MagnetIt's all drunkenly cinematic, as prickly as a cactus and smart as hell. [#58, p.85]
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Q MagazineIt's some indication of Feast of Wire's accomplished evocation of Arizona's old weirdness that it makes you want to go to Tucson. [Mar 2003, p.104]
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In the hands of a lesser band, all the different sounds Calexico explores on Feast of Wire could result in a mish-mash of an album, but fortunately for them and their fans, it's one of their most accomplished and exciting efforts.
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MojoSeductive, stirring songs about crushed hope and the corruption of beauty and some of their most ambitious arrangements make this their most fully-realised and accomplished album yet. [Mar 2003, p.98]
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Alternative PressThis is Calexico at their finest. [March 2003, p.86]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 19 out of 20
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Mixed: 0 out of 20
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Negative: 1 out of 20
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Mar 31, 2012
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DavidB.Apr 8, 2008In my all time top 10 of albums.
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Bibi2315Feb 11, 2006Really one of the best Calexico works. Still entertaining after 3 years of repetitive audiences. Love it!