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Jun 25, 2015Though its 14 tracks were recorded sporadically across something like three years with co-producer Mike Mogis, you’d be hard-pressed to hear a lack of momentum or consistency.
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Jun 23, 2015Rather than dialling in the same record with a different twist every two years, Desaparecidos have crafted another mission statement.
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Jun 19, 2015Few bands can return after a 13-year absence and sound vital and fresh, transforming an old-school approach into a process that sounds original. That’s precisely what Desaparecidos have done, making Payola a welcome comeback surprise.
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Jun 30, 2015[A] terrific LP, which depicts a sickness at the heart of America with a confident swagger and righteous anger.
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Jun 26, 2015Recruiting Cursive’s Tim Kasher (on a single that outs the founding fathers as slave rapists) and Laura Jane Grace for 14 good songs in 40 minutes, Oberst’s made his best album since 2008’s addictive Conor Oberst, and ended up with the white male rage of the year.
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Jun 23, 2015Ultimately, the band ends up playing off each and every strength, backed by Oberst doing what he does best.
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Jun 22, 2015Politically charged punk rock can be an exhausting and overtly self-righteous affair in the wrong hands, but Oberst and company temper their outrage with unadulterated melodic might, resulting in that rare protest album that rewards both the condemners and the condemned.
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Jun 19, 2015This is an album designed to move people, and Payola manages to do so in so very many ways.
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Jun 19, 2015Listening to Oberst’s righteous rage, his tone a world away from his tender confessionals, one has to credit his dedication, 14 years on, to making them heard.
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Jun 18, 2015While not the cutting-edge of US punk, it’s still a wholly engaging retread.
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Jun 17, 2015It doesn’t quite retain the piss and vinegar, lightning-in-a-bottle feel of its predecessor. But then of course it doesn’t: that album was turned out in a matter of days by much younger musicians, while this release spanned years and several recording sessions and it’s still absolutely exhilarating.
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Alternative PressJun 16, 2015This cause-minded screamo-ish collective is older and more grounded, but are no less committed to inciting change that sticks. [Jul 2015, p.98]
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Jun 22, 2015Payola is fast and furious, but carefully engineered for maximum, straight-ahead velocity.
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Jun 23, 2015When Payola goes too far with the hectoring, its politics start to wear, becoming a stump speech rather than a blast of anger. But the band mostly manages to stay on the right side of that tipping point, favoring storytelling of the Springsteen variety, of poor souls and beaten-down workers suckered by the American dream.
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Jun 17, 2015Even if seems a touch outdated at points, though, there’s not likely to be another punk album this year that unleashes its ire with such precision--and it’s proof again, too, that Oberst remains a master of switching through the gears.
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Jun 24, 2015Payola picks off right where their last one left off while completely ignoring that the past decade even happened, which sounds like a harder feat then it might appear.
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Jun 24, 2015With so much fury mixed with sugar, Payola deserves some more meat on its bones. Six of these songs were released at least two years before the album came out.
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Jun 23, 2015By simply moving with the times, Desaparecidos have managed to skirt that issue entirely, making Payola a surprisingly vital return we never knew we needed.
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Jun 23, 2015It could be all tongue in cheek--and some of it probably is--but in the end, this isn’t an Occupy rally, it’s a rock album. And it’s not a shabby one at that.
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Jun 16, 2015The pop-punk politicising does get exhausting over 14 fiercely energetic, relentlessly right-on tracks, but even after a decade as a folk star, Oberst still gives the other grown-up emo kids a run for their money.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 16
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Mixed: 2 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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Jun 24, 2015
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Jan 23, 2019
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Jul 16, 2015