User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info

Ring
by
Ring Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 15 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the debut full-length album for Cameron Mesirow as Glasser.
Buy Now
Buy on
  • Record Label: True Panther Sounds
  • Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Electronic, Dream Pop
  • More Details and Credits »

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. The A.V. Club
    91
    It's an ambitious, perhaps even hypercompositional debut, one whose strange beauty demands attention.
  2. Dusted Magazine
    80
    There is little time wasted in this record's nine songs, and that Mesirow packs so many wonderful sounds into it without really complicating the chord progressions or basic melodies is perhaps the truest testament to her talent.
  3. Under The Radar
    Oct 26, 2010
    80
    Upon first listen, Ring is entirely enjoyabe, but there's something about the second run through the loop that is transcendent. [Fall 2010, p.60]
    All this publication's reviews
  4. Spin
    70
    It's also in those nature-obsessed lyrics, delivered in tones so dulcet and hypnotic that the inclination to don a robe and commune with Vespertine-era Bjork is overwhelming.
  5. Slant Magazine
    Oct 25, 2010
    70
    Ring is more a cohesive, narrative song cycle than a simple collection of disparate pop songs.
  6. musicOMH.com
    70
    It's tempting to deride the album as too similar at times, but the truth is that each of these songs is a perfectly sculpted and realised work of wonder revolving around a couple of central themes, which appears to be based primarily in the sounds of the Orient and the South American rainforest.
  7. Tiny Mix Tapes
    60
    The music of 2000 sounds pretty tantric by comparison. And anyone old enough to have been swept up in the ornate neo-psych of the mid- to late-90s now has a right to feel a little ripped off by their nostalgia. All of which is to suppose how Glasser's debut LP, Ring, sounds beautiful, complex, intricate, and so on, and yet fails to actualize her.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Samuel17
    May 15, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A special album. Glasser showed her intelligence and prime skills while creating "Ring". Home, Glad, T, Tremel, Mirrorage and Treasure Of We are the best songs on it!… Expand
  2. hydrawithears
    Oct 3, 2011
    10
    Glasser is Cameron Mesirow and with her full-length debut album she joined the most intriguing and original female vocalists ever (watch yourGlasser is Cameron Mesirow and with her full-length debut album she joined the most intriguing and original female vocalists ever (watch your back Björk). Ring is a sublime combination of heavy percussion and synths. The songs themselves are highly creative yet instantly attractive. Apply is one of the best opening songs Iâ… Expand
  4. heirloom
    Jan 31, 2011
    8
    Imagine walking through a jungle in the year 3000 and coming across a long lost female pagan group with synthesizers in hand and you will knowImagine walking through a jungle in the year 3000 and coming across a long lost female pagan group with synthesizers in hand and you will know you're listening to Cameron Mesirow's, (aka Glasser) debut LP, Ring. She welcomes you to her land with hard stomping tribal drums, fat lower octave synths, and primitive yelping on opener track "Apply" (somewhat reminiscent of Bjork's 2007 LP, Volta's opener "Earth Intruders"). The abstract lyrics and animal cries soon naturally fade to a more ethereal sounding track called "Home" with it's quirky use of hand claps, brass, marimbas, and synths. After that you will be taken to the slower and in my opinion the least exciting tracks of the whole album, "Glad" and "Plane Temp". While they are indeed beautiful and cohesive to the rest of the album, they were growers and most plain sounding songs. But quickly you are treated to the synths that were lacking it's true leading presence in the latter two, with synthscapade "T". With it's magnificently layered vocals and hypnotizing beats, like all of Ring, this song is more heartfelt but still emotionally strong at the same time by it's vulnerable lyrics but yet with it's hard beat. Swimming down the hard beat from "T" you become immersed in "Tremel", a beautiful and sexy growing tribal chant, definitely the most unique song off the whole album. Then you are lead to pagan ceremony gone synth-pop track "Mirrorage". If radio was a little bit more open minded this would be blasting out of everyone's car, with it's catchy hook ("How can I trust in you?") fast bass drums, funky vocoders, and celestial cymbals. "Treasure of We" keeps on the same more poppier side of Ring, but lacks the character of "Mirrorage". The final track "Clamour" (reminscent of Bjork's 2004 LP Medulla vocals) brings the album in a extravagant but somewhat haunting end but ends off with an outro that does tie the album in a "Ring" with the growing "Apply" drums finishing the album just as it started. The album's ethereal power makes it convincing the Glasser will prevail into becoming an ethereal giant joining the ranks of Florence Welch, Alison Goldfrapp, Enya, Bjork, and Kate Bush. Definitely, the best post-modern album in a long time, but the most interesting factor is it's primitive sound constructed entirely on samples, MIDI, synths, and computers. This album is huge and every sound on it is huge and massive, with many layered tracks which suprisingly never becomes irritating. Ring is right for anyone into great earthly electronic and artistic music.… Expand

Current Music Releases

Full List »
99 Band on the Run [50th Anniversary Edition] - Paul McCartney & Wings
95 The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow - Charles Lloyd
92 This Could Be Texas - English Teacher
92 COWBOY CARTER - Beyoncé
91 The Carnegie Hall Concert - Alice Coltrane
90 THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT - Taylor Swift
90 1989 (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift
90 Iechyd Da - Bill Ryder-Jones
89 I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy
89 Black Bayou - Robert Finley
89 Tigers Blood - Waxahatchee
89 Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend
88 Ozarker - Israel Nash
88 What Now - Brittany Howard
88 Hey Panda - The High Llamas
88 Orquídeas - Kali Uchis
88 The Past Is Still Alive - Hurray for the Riff Raff
87 Filthy Underneath - Nadine Shah
87 i/o - Peter Gabriel
87 Lahai - Sampha
All Current Music »