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Places Like This is right up there with the year's best madcap adventures into dance and rock.
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Places Like This is a fun album that’s difficult to describe and impossible to forget.
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This album, their third, hurls in everything from trombone and steel drums to something called a "two-note apocalyptic swamp axe". What that refers to is unclear, but it can't be a bad thing if it assists a ridiculously infectious jerky party vibe somewhere between Talking Heads' juddering funk and early B52s' stop-start pop.
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Architecture's instrumentation is more varied than ever before. Though they could've made another fine record by sticking to the simpler approach of their previous albums, it's refreshing to see a band take a more ambitious route, and do it well.
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They’re a zesty bunch are Architecture In Helsinki, and never more so than on Places Like This.
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Aside from moments where the wackiness gets too overwrought (kid song sound-alike 'Underwater,' the Muppets-y 'Like It or Not'), Places really struts when snarkless electro is in the fore, and a disco high-hat or sunny, guitar-led rock dominates.
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If the album sounds simple, it's because it is simple; it's the attitude, idiosyncrasies and Architecture in Helsinki's refusal to fall into the fey trappings of paint-by-numbers indie pop that make it such a distinguishing treat.
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Too much is just right on the third album from this Aussie (not Finnish) sextet.
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This time, the energy is clear from the start, giving tracks like 'Heart It Races' and 'Lazy (Lazy)' the momentum to burst into the sonic equivalent of confetti.
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The band is still fun, successfully completing their transition from cutesy electro-Baroque to a twee-funk sensation.
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Under The RadarPlaces Like This is an experimental step forward for a forward-leaning experimental band. [Summer 2007, p.72]
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Just know that Architecture in Helsinki have enough energy to continue cranking out these adrenaline and saccharine cocktails until you do.
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Places Like This ultimately shares qualities with its IM-chat womb: It's entertaining as hell, but eventually you'd rather just minimize the window and get on with your day.
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Entertainment WeeklyWhen one of Bird's madcap schemes works, the results are exhilarating. [31 Aug 2007, p.67]
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Architecture's indulgent heart is the band’s strongest suit--and tracks like the vibrant 'Heart It Races' wouldn’t be half as good if Bird and company weren't willing to risk sounding a bit too sickly sweet sometimes.
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The abbreviated runtime of Places Like This makes it seem as though they could have given their ideas more space to breathe, rather than piling them up like a stack of pancakes.
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All whoops and yelps, their third album jumps skittishly from primary-coloured electro to punk to poolside cabaret, with an impressive sense of its own silliness.
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With such a sprawling array of instruments on offer, Places Like This is surprisingly one dimensional.
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With its sexed-up beats, cowbell, nonsense chants and wigged-out Casio-keyboard psychedelia, Places Like This turns its sound-effect juxtapositions into sheepishly functional tunes.
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Most of Places Like This doesn’t live up to its potential. Breathless, innovative changes and endless instrumentation are what the band do best, and for the most part, it’s not here.
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Q MagazineThere's a new post-punk, white-funk edge to their sound on the glorious 'Debbie' that surely comes from Bird's new locale, While 'Lazy (Lazy)' slinks along with Talking Heads-esque subtlety. [Sep 2007, p.88]
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Architecture In Helsinki are hyper self-aware and they seem unable to write or perform any kind of song without imbuing it with some sense of irony or post modernism.
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SpinThe band offers their richest, most eclectic accompaniment yet. [Sep 2007, p.122]
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To their credit, the album is fun in small doses. Still, the musicianship is never great, sometimes dreadful. The "fun" of the album sometimes feels forced, trying to capitalize on the success of "In Case We Die."
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There are a couple of standouts here--'Like It or Not' could be a cross between 'It'5!' and the Cure's bizarrely cheerful moments, while 'Nothing's Wrong' shows what the rest of the album should've sounded like--but most of Places Like This is a mystifying misfire.
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The gimmick runs out of novelty long before this third album is done. Even 31 minutes of show-off kiddie theater is too much.
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In spite of Architecture In Helsinki's trademark bounce and imagination, Places feels far more like work than play.
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Aussie collective Architecture in Helsinki return with an awkward mess of shrieking faux island riddims and embarrassing rump-shaking elasto-funk.
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Unoriginal, haphazardly thrown together and lacking most of what could make it the least bit enjoyable, Places Like This just proves that Architecture in Helsinki is a one trick pony.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 23
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Mixed: 3 out of 23
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Negative: 6 out of 23
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BizN.Sep 7, 2007Not quite as solid as their last two full lengths, but still solid in its originality and zaniness.
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SebastianZ.Sep 7, 2007they dont sound like anyone else, quirky as hell and extreamly entertaining to listen to
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FreshCharlieAug 31, 2007There are moments, but this is easily the bands most disposable. Too bad, I was really hoping for more...