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Kensington Heights Image
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 14 Ratings

  • Summary: The fourth album for the Canadian indie rock band is its first full-length album on the Arts & Crafts label.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Far from an easygoing slice of complacent contentedness, Kensington Heights finds the band pinpointing its angry energy with expert precision, rather than flailing with the wild abandon of old.
  2. Kensington Heights, like its predecessor, isn't as fiery as the best moments on the band's inconsistent breakthrough, 2003's "Shine a Light," but the Constantines still deliver bedrock strength and eternal-flame passion.
  3. If "Tournament Of Hearts" lacked consistency and focus, Heights feels like a fully realized artistic statement. Welcome back, Constantines.
  4. In highlighting the more tasteful, nuances of their sounds, they’ve emerged with a more cohesive whole, a representation that better captures their classic-rock heart while simultaneously stripping the fat away and revealing the core behind the chaos.
  5. Even if Kensington Heights is the Constantines' least satisfying album, the band's sound is never less than mighty; it's just disappointing how easy it is to let so many songs here fade into the background
  6. 70
    The fourth LP from this gritty Toronto five-piece offers a few genuine gems sprinkled among many more tracks borne out of blue-collar blood, sweat and tears.
  7. Q Magazine
    60
    While 'New King' and 'Time Can Be Overcome' are heartland country-rock classics, the funk-flecked 'Trans Canada' and feedback-frazzled 'Shower Of Stones' take a cue frrom dub-punk icons Fugazi. [Oct 2008, p.141]

See all 17 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of