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Jul 24, 2012The band's ability to put repulsive images and to a danceable beat makes Shrines a knockout.
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Jul 25, 2012Purity Ring have pulled off the feat of producing one of the year's most arresting debuts – a Grimm Tales for the 2010s, shrouded in the illusory threads of contemporary club music – while sounding like no-one else but themselves.
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Jul 24, 2012Shrines is a euphoric treat in its own right, made all the more thrilling by its heady potential.
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Jul 23, 2012'Shrines' is a joy from start to finish, with a sticking power that so many others seem to lack.... It would be no surprise to see Purity Ring top the end of year round-ups.
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Jul 20, 2012It's a record that effortlessly juxtaposes chopped up electronics and ghostly effects with James' supersweet voice to create eleven strange but simple pleasures.
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Sep 13, 2012The refrain in "Fineshrine" ("Get a little closer, let it fold/Cut open my sternum and pull/My little ribs around you") sums up Purity Ring with creepy efficacy, consuming and surrounding the listener. And as sweetly chirped by Megan James, it never seems like a bad thing.
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MagnetJul 24, 2012Although they rarely stray far from their now-familiarly icy aesthetic on Shrines, the decidedly captivating manner with which Purity ring navigates said aesthetic makes for one of the most exciting debuts in recent memory. [No.89, p.59]
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Jul 23, 2012Shrines functions just fine as a collection of Purity Ring's work thus far, but it also functions as a singular, cohesive artistic statement, a capital-a Album, and that's much more rewarding.
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Jul 24, 2012Shrines is not about range, instead offering subtly different versions of a single, near-perfect idea. You might think of the album as a sculpture, and each track offers a different vantage point... compulsively listenable.
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Jul 24, 2012Yes, there are some moments on Shrines where Purity Ring falls back on some of witch-house's less-lovely tendencies (the hip-hop flourishes of "Grandloves" are as out of place as they are predictable), but those moments are entirely forgivable, given the totality of vision and the strength of execution throughout the rest of the record.
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Aug 7, 2012Dreamy at times (Crawlersout), with shimmering synths and picturesque melodies, there is a haunting beauty, almost terrifying, that surrounds the listener, almost as if one is sitting inside a sonic cocoon while taking it all in.
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Aug 1, 2012The songwriting is versatile but cohesive; every song clearly has its own place on Shrines, and each one has a strong hook, at least one beat or lyric you'll find yourself thinking over for a little bit.
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Jul 25, 2012Pulling the entire effort back from the precipice of cliché is the immediate charisma of vocalist Megan James, particularly engaging when hurdling over cleverly constructed lines of wordplay.
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Jul 25, 2012Shrines is the sound of the air beneath your bed whispering when you rest.
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Jul 25, 2012The record largely blurs together into a gloriously inscrutable haze, but certain songs resonate as sundry, singular experiences.
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Jul 24, 2012There's something inexplicable about Purity Ring's marriage of Montrealer Corin Roddick's haunted, bass-heavy hip-hop-tronic production to Haligonian Megan James's prim alto croon, something that transcends what is traditionally accepted as "good" music.
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Jul 24, 2012Combining French house production techniques with narcotic Flocka beats are what pop dreams are made of, and they own it with style and confidence.
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Jul 23, 2012This is a record with reference points of the highest quality (Björk, Fever Ray, Burial), which, at best, bears comparison with them all.
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Jul 19, 2012The final outcome is a trebly plastic-fantastic quality, rendering Shrines closer in tone and texture to coke-rap than ethereal indie.
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Jul 19, 2012Despite minor niggles, such as the slight lack of scope in sound, Shrines is a confident debut that justifies the hype.
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Jul 17, 2012Whatever it all means, it's delivered with a joyous glee, and anyone searching for a more electro-based companion to Grimes' Visions need look no further.
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Jul 31, 2012The juxtaposition of an earnest attempt at a spook with what otherwise sounds like super-weird children's songs is at least genuinely interesting, falling short of fear-inspiring, if that's what they were after.
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Aug 10, 2012The contrast between Purity Ring's two halves is special and compelling, but Shrines goes over best when Roddick's reverent sound and James' lustful fury synchronize and break you off properly, womb-stem-style.
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Jul 26, 2012As a closer [song "Shuck"], it's an interesting moment and one particularly reflective of Shrines' strengths and its dualistic intrigues: the serenity of Roddick's buoyant, burbling synths amidst James's hallucinatory full-moon visions.
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Jul 25, 2012Shrines is a fine debut, full of lighter-than-air synth pop that manages to be dark, sparkling, innocent, and knowing all at once.
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Jul 24, 2012The synths are so smooth sounding that after a few moments they begin to lull you but not into sleep. This is way too dark of a place for sleep; it seems more like hypnosis.
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UncutJul 17, 2012Shrines sees this young Canadian duo tamper with generic electro to create often sparkling results. [Aug 2012, p.78]
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Jul 17, 2012The Canadian boy-girl duo's debut is a whirl of delicate dream pop.
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Jul 17, 2012Although the band's sonic stew isn't particularly remarkable or consistent (instrumentation oscillates between warm and comforting, and distant and anemic), their lyrics have a peculiar charm that keeps them alluring.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 113 out of 122
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Mixed: 5 out of 122
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Negative: 4 out of 122
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Jul 25, 2012
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Aug 14, 2012
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Jul 31, 2012