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Sep 16, 2016Pretty Years is joyous, revelatory, and the moment where the varied sounds of those past three records all come together.
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Sep 27, 2016This record's varied influences are held together by the mastery of both D'Agostino's songwriting and Congleton's production. It's unpredictable but immensely rewarding.
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Sep 20, 2016Pretty Years is a document of Cymbals Eat Guitars’ most accessible music, D’Agostino’s richest vocal performances, and his ever-deepening lyrical acuity. It’s the best release yet from one of America’s most promising bands.
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Sep 26, 2016As a guitar record, Pretty Years perhaps doesn’t reach the delirious heights of LOSE, but the melodies here are more consistently grounded in pop roots, however ripped and dusty they may appear. ... One of 2016’s best albums.
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Sep 21, 2016Pretty Years is one of the best guitar albums of the year.
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MagnetSep 20, 2016In truth, Springsteen himself might not be able to pull off the grit and glam of Pretty Years, but Cymbals Eat Guitars makes it look easy. [No. 135, p.55]
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Sep 14, 2016They've glacially been building to this, one of the most inventive, adventurous, and best rock records of 2016.
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Oct 17, 2016Pretty Years doesn’t sugarcoat things just for the sake of it: the band is just as apprehensive about life’s everyday troubles, and it’s by holding on to a healthy sense of proportion that Cymbals Eat Guitars retain their quietly visceral power.
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Sep 20, 2016Despite a noble resume, no other album comes closer to capturing the true essence of their onstage presence.
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Sep 16, 2016An album that so movingly testifies to the difficulty of appreciating what you have while still reconciling what you’ve lost.
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Sep 14, 2016Fans needn't worry that the group's vitality has faded, however. If anything, it takes advantage of a broader palette as Cymbals Eat Guitars continue to dip into more styles without losing their warped, crunchy center.
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Kerrang!Sep 22, 2016A record packed with starry-eyed guitars, almost as if they were being beamed back down from the International Space Station. [24 Sep 2016, p.53]
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Sep 14, 2016It just falls short of completely engulfing your interest and really exposing itself as anything completely fresh and inspiring. It’s pretty in places, but you’re left wishing that it was truly beautiful.
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UncutSep 14, 2016The Staten Island quartet blend the fixtures and fittings of noisy US slacker rock--Sonic Youth drones, Pavement squalls--but add a bubblegum pop sensibility. Their vocalist Joseph D'Agostino, however, remains something of an acquired taste. [Oct 2016, p.26]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 14
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Mixed: 0 out of 14
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Negative: 2 out of 14
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Sep 18, 2016