by
Joan of Arc
- Record Label: Polyvinyl
- Release Date: Aug 24, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Though their words suggest such weighty topics, the album remains sonically airy. It might get tense, but it's never dense.
-
Disparate though its individual elements may seem (and they certainly are), the sum of the parts is remarkably cohesive.
-
Kinsella and his crew finally seem to have found a way of expressing themselves that doesn't feel introverted and exclusive.
-
While Joan of Arcs latest is a relative failure as an album when compared to everything else coming out in indie-rock these days (dropping them under .500 in my book), it is a winning effort, relative to the whole of the Joan of Arc/Tim Kinsella catalog.
-
There's a ton of great music on this release, but Kinsella ultimately ruins the focus.
-
The balance of unsettleing noise and artistic appreciation wavers perhaps a little too much and, as admirable a band as they are, wrapping your ears around their album unfortunately proves to be a little too much work.
-
Kinsellas unrelenting lack of melody, his horribly self-absorbed and nebulous lyrics, and an overall misuse of timing force the rest of the mix into the periphery for a more numbing, frustrating listen.
-
The album's saving grace is the surrounding music, which almost, but not quite, makes up for Kinsella's constant barrage of tiresome non-sequiturs.
-
Alternative PressEither the worst or the best thing I've heard all year. [Dec 2004, p.152]
-
Kinsella carefully enunciates his lyrics to make sure we hear all the clever references he's making, forcing SAT words into musical phrases that stagger under the weight of their pretense.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 8 out of 9
-
Mixed: 0 out of 9
-
Negative: 1 out of 9
-
DiegoL.Jun 21, 2008I really like their music.
-
JohnF.Oct 1, 2007
-
RayendraOct 13, 2005wow... i don't know i must really like their music. The Sound and the feeling when they played the music is so naturally come out.