- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Yes, it's a shamelessly arch and overarching achievement, and, make no mistake, some of you out there will hate this record and want to have at it with badly corroded screwdrivers.
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UncutIt's the vivid, virulent product of the Maels' warped imaginations. [Mar 2006, p.90]
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New Musical Express (NME)There's no possible way of having this much fun without getting the chorus of Handel's 'Messiah' drunk on peach schnapps. [4 Feb 2006, p.29]
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"Hello Young Lovers"... ramps everything up with witty, even more densely packed compositions that are more pop arias than songs.
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I wouldn't want to call it a "return to form" because Lil' Beethoven was actually pretty good, but it certainly perfects that album's aesthetic and infuses it with some of the giddy energy of the earlier Sparks stuff.
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Spin[They] up the theater-major quotient. [Apr 2006, p.91]
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Close to a full mélange of all the band's various sounds thus far over the years.
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MojoThe repetitive refrains and orchestral interventions of Lil' Beethoven are developed with the judicious use of rock guitar into something bigger, yet just as beguiling. [Feb 2006, p.90]
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Q MagazineA sweetly brain-scrambling experience. [Apr 2006, p.114]
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Under The RadarThe numbers within Hello Young Lovers are rock operatic gems that subvert all notions of what a pop song should be. [#13, p.94]
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UrbDelightfully odd, smart and horny, the Maels deliver on time once again. [May 2006, p.90]
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Finds them as innovative as ever, mashing up opera, classical and electronics to sound quaint, futuristic, winningly dumb and hugely intelligent at the same time.
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What makes Hello Young Lovers a more interesting album than many pop purists might give it credit for is how Sparks' anti-pop approach to song structure and instrumentation give their compositions both a weight and a replay value that they wouldn't otherwise have.
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These songs run too long, even to the point of faking fade-outs and then bursting back for another coda.
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Casual and smartly-attired passers-by alike may find little to separate this excursion into meta-pop from the last.
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Does one really want to listen to gorgeous musical crescendos and a falsetto singing “all I do now is dick around/ dick around” or a bouncy plea that “barometric pressure has no relevance to me”?
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In between the dead-horse beatings, the Mael brothers pull off some brilliant one-liners and explore uncharted thematic territory, which suggests that Hello Young Lovers could have been truly great if the Maels wanted it to be.
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It’s frustrating to hear them in this context – sounding jaded and uninspired, a slump they haven’t been in since the late ‘80s.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 16
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Mixed: 0 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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LouieoMay 4, 2006some of the most original work out there today! incredible arrangements and piss funny lyrics too
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DarkoFApr 21, 2006Very Mindblowing album. Been on heavy rotation for a week- it really cooks. Up there in my top 50 all time greats.
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sallykMar 31, 2006awesome record. every other band out there should look at what they are doing!