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Apr 22, 2016With Lost Themes II, John Carpenter and band have delivered an album that not only stands up to its predecessor, but surpasses it. In addition to eerie atmospherics, the album is laden with addictive grooves, and feels sharper.
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Apr 19, 2016It all makes for a more balanced, arguably more enjoyable listening experience than the original Lost Themes, and with the triumphant yet suspenseful "Utopian Facade" suggesting a threequel, it's another must for Carpenter fans.
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Apr 4, 2016The unashamedly 80s aesthetic--which hallmarked the first Lost Themes--is pleasingly and emphatically recurrent on the second.
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Apr 4, 2016What the album lacks in singularity, it makes up for with a stronger sense of urgency. It’s louder, it’s heavier, and it’s jammier.
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The WireMay 9, 2016An album of authentic 80s nostalgia that followers of the filmmaker's canon are bound to treasure. [May 2016, p.46]
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Apr 22, 2016Those not familiar with John Carpenter’s work may find his approach a little baffling, dated, and over the course of an entire album, somewhat monotonous. But they’d have never got it anyway.
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Apr 13, 2016Overall, fans of John Carpenter's work will find lots to love in Lost Themes II, and aspiring filmmakers could definitely take inspiration from it.
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Apr 26, 2016Subtlety is in short supply on Lost Themes II, with soaring guitar solos, industrial synthesisers and violent percussion throughout.
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Apr 20, 2016This album works best when those ideas are allowed to flourish and persist. When the arrangements get too embellished and full, they veer too far away from what makes Carpenter’s economical gestures so enduring, relying too heavily on virtuosity for comfort.
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Apr 19, 2016On the opening ‘Distant Dream’, where a nagging, urgent keyboard line recalls classic Halloween-era Carpenter, until the creepy effect is undermined by some big, thumping power-drums that come off as more dated than retro. Its an ongoing problem across a record that is often enjoyable, but just as often frustrating.
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Apr 19, 2016The band element is Carpenter's saving grace and is hopefully a sign of what's to come, as the potential for this project remains enticing.
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Apr 15, 2016It needed to be a Blackstar, not a The Next Day Part 2. Instead we're left with a lightweight affair that reminds us all that John Carpenter is far from infallible.
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Apr 14, 2016Disarmingly pretty tunes provide innocuous preludes to creeping aural dread and the best tracks conjure up movies in your head, with White Pulse and Dark Blues in particular conjuring imaginary terrors.
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MojoApr 4, 2016Chromatics fans will fine much to love, but the eeriness that made Carpenter's reputation is mostly lacking because he doesn't need to soundtrack a shock or its aftermath. [May 2016, p.89]
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UncutApr 4, 2016Some of the music here illustrates the limitations of the formula, sometimes lapsing into lumpy blues-rock or new-age noodling. [May 2016, p.70]
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Apr 25, 2016You get the feeling as you listen to the entirety of Lost Themes II that someone let their finger linger far too long on the butter button at the movie theater concession stand.
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May 4, 2016Lost Themes II isn’t the monster transfigured. It’s an echo chamber for the transforming horror to howl in.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 10
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Mixed: 0 out of 10
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Negative: 3 out of 10
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Jun 12, 2016