Silver Bullets

There are no throwaways on this album.

Income inequality and class warfare, intolerance and love--arguably the heaviest subject of all--are dealt with firmly and frankly, couched in Phillipps' timeless, jangly melodies. [No. 126, p.52]

One skippable track makes for a slight mark against an otherwise strong return to the world. After decades of teases, EPs and live stuff, a few good singles would have been satisfying, but with a quality album, it’s certainly nice to have the Chills again.

Happily, it’s been worth the wait as Silver Bullets is fresh, exhilarating and the most essential Chills LP since the critically acclaimed Submarine Bells.

Silver Bullets sounds, instantly and unmistakably, like a Chills album.... It is also a heartening delight. [Dec 2015, p.63]

They sound almost like the musical embodiment of autumn, part windswept and part golden--and that’s very much present on Silver Bullets, a minor triumph of an album.

Old dogs, old tricks, but when the tricks are this good why would you want new ones? [Dec 2015, p.106]

Minor niggles aside though, Silver Bullets is a solid and rewarding return to the fray for The Chills which patient followers will wrap their ears around gratefully.

Silver Bullets fits together as a whole and doesn't need a pop hit, heavenly or otherwise, to be interesting or worthwhile. It's enough that The Chills are back and just as good as they were when they left off.

The album is best when it’s at its broadest.

Righteous political anger surfaces on the somewhat clumsy, syllable-stuffed "America Says Hello"; much sharper is "Tomboy," which finds Phillipps reframing his social concerns in a more personal context while offering insight into the darker aspects of childhood that go ignored by so many other poets of innocence. Silver Bullets proves Phillipps is still in touch with his awed, boyish vision, which has only been enriched—rather than tainted—by experience.