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UncutSep 14, 2012There's uncommon immediacy to Crazy Horse-style bashers like "Knock Knock" and "How To Live," as well as big-sky ballads like "Long Vows." [Oct 2012, p.73]
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Sep 18, 2012Bridwell has never sounded more assured as a songwriter, exploring bold new ideas and penning some of his most poignant lyrics.
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Sep 19, 2012After four triumphant releases, and no matter where they go, it's clear we can trust Band of Horses, one of America's biggest and best rock and roll bands, to deliver.
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Dec 6, 2012Ben Bridwell's voice remains a beguiling instrument in both high and low registers, and there are moments of stark beauty.
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MagnetOct 1, 2012The songs work as robust individuals, as well as in the dynamic context of the album's sequencing; up-tempo rockers connect with sparse 'n' sullen twangers. [No.91, p.53]
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MojoSep 19, 2012Mirage rock's persistent melodies and infectious energy is hard to resist. [Oct 2012, p.87]
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Sep 17, 2012Turns out bringing his [Glyn Johns] old-school rock'n'roll expertise into the southern-fried fold makes for a perfect match.
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Sep 14, 2012Some might miss the old starry-eyed dreamers; other will revel in the focus and determination.
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Sep 12, 2012Mirage Rock might as well be the name of a new airy-rock subgenre, with luscious, echoey story-tunes rolling in like a soft mirage-inducing mountain fog.
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Sep 25, 2012Even when Band of Horses go for broke, the South Carolina-bred Bridwell exudes the laidback gravity of a down-to earth Southerner.
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Sep 18, 2012Overall, though, while Mirage Rock sees Band of Horses further immerse themselves in Americana, more than anything it finds them enraptured by the simple joy of music-making.
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Sep 18, 2012Mirage Rock isn't a perfect record, but it's one to own.
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Sep 17, 2012This record is completely free of direction changes but at least they are consistent.
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Sep 17, 2012While Mirage Rock may want for a certain degree of ambition and creativity, Band of Horses have, at the very least, figured out how to bring Americana music to a mainstream rock audience without succumbing to the genre's most dire, comatose conventions.
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Sep 14, 2012Band of Horses have embraced a more mature, laid back kind of rock on Mirage Rock, and it's a comfortable, cozy fit.
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Sep 12, 2012Still, despite some odd uses of language on them, tracks like Shut-In Tourist and Everything's Gonna Be Undone will undoubtedly keep fans of this enduring band more than happy.
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Sep 18, 2012On Mirage Rock's best songs, the band feels like a sum of those parts. On its worst-like lyrical head-scratcher "Dumpster World"-it sounds like an ace band that can't salvage the mediocre material.
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Sep 27, 2012Bridwell's small-town observations have previously had a shallow yet quaint quality to them, but Mirage Rock goes far too heavy on the clichés.
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Sep 18, 2012Unfortunately, a handful of good moments aren't enough to outweigh an album jammed with songwriting that just doesn't amount to anything.
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Q MagazineSep 12, 2012For all its finite charms, though, Mirage Rock lacks the slinkiness of Infinite Arms. [Oct 2012, p.93]
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Sep 20, 2012The album, sweet as it sounds, is so polite that to keep from offending listeners it stops short of saying anything to them.
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Sep 26, 2012The songwriting ... takes a bit of a dip on this one. Oh sure, the first few songs are pretty good but that's it, just pretty good.
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Sep 12, 2012There are those that will love this record, for whom it will be the gateway into earlier, richer work. But for those of us who have already been spellbound by what Ben Bridwell can create, this is simply not enough.
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Sep 21, 2012It's a drag that so many of Mirage Rock's most transcendent moments--the stuff suggesting real maturity--are so quickly undone by such nonsensical toss-offs.
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Sep 19, 2012Mirage Rock is so lightweight and inconsequential that it really does seem more like an illusion than a record; it's wispy and indiscernible, as if the people who made it had no vision for what it should be.
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Sep 18, 2012If Infinite Arms was this band treading water, then Mirage Rock is the band sinking into mediocrity.
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Sep 17, 2012Yet it's too comfortable, old ideas diluted to homeopathic proportions, results half-hearted and strangely spiritless, songs feeling overly long.
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Alternative PressSep 12, 2012The Southern-rock grit that used to make Band Of Horses spellbinding is in dangerously short supply, but there's nothing else there to replace it. [Oct 2012, p.84]
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Oct 30, 2012Fourth album Mirage Rock is a bungled mess of poor production and half-assed songwriting.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 32
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Mixed: 14 out of 32
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Negative: 4 out of 32
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Sep 25, 2012
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Sep 26, 2012
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Dec 18, 2015