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Apr 28, 2016Singing Saw is one of those albums that immediately captures your interest, but offers enough depth and hidden intricacies to make every subsequent listen just as rewarding.
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UncutApr 14, 2016Superb third album. ... The album is beautifully structured like this, with narrative threads and recurring thoughts picked up and passed from song to song. It's also self-referential but, crucially, never arch. [May 2016, p.68]
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Apr 20, 2016For all the tragedy that’s to be found within Singing Saw, it is a warm, welcoming album, every second of it informed by a knowledge of the transience of all things.
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Apr 14, 2016There's a strong sense of ambition on these recordings, a strong sense of purpose.
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Apr 15, 2016Single lines don’t really stand out, but Morby’s commitment to such elemental concerns has a cumulative effect, and the album’s lack of specificity becomes a strength. That confidence extends to musical choices, including Morby’s tendency to let the small details of the sound do the work.
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Jun 3, 2016The songs, then, range from spare, acoustic folk blues to full-fleshed extravaganzas, yet even the most dizzying tracks have an introspective cast.
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May 11, 2016It’s a collection that proves Moby’s a gifted, mature songwriter.
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May 10, 2016Over time, Morby should outgrow his occasional Dylanesque vocal quirks and redundant baroque embellishments. Still, Singing Saw will be remembered as a breakthrough moment from an artist who’s now more comfortable articulating his own visual language.
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Q MagazineMay 5, 2016Beauty that can slice down to bone: double-edged and deep. [Jul 2016, p.108]
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MojoApr 27, 2016Morby has delivered largely run-of-the-mill roots rock, but Singing Saw is more measured. [Jun 2016, p.91]
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Apr 18, 2016Black Flowers, one of several tracks rooted in nature, typifies his songwriting prowess, its cryptic lyrics twinned with a gorgeous melody that is both pristine and familiar.
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Apr 18, 2016For the most part, though, Morby is refashioning his admiration for canonical songwriters through a closer attention to mood, atmosphere and the evocative potential of sound.
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Apr 18, 2016Singing Saw is the sound of affirmation, of both hard-earned talent and childlike imagination. As a result, Morby has discovered a sound which is organic without ever quoting, rocking without ever rolling at the same time, transcending while barely leaving the ground.
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Apr 15, 2016He sounds similarly out of it on the dreamy-as-hell pair ‘Drunk And On A Star’ (“I’ve gone dizzy, like a ship/ When that water comes into it”) and ‘Ferris Wheel’ (“Well I lose my mind, sometimes”). By the end of this sublime record, you’ll have lost yours too.
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Apr 14, 2016The results are some of the most affecting works of his career, spun through with deep meanings and political sentiment.
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Apr 14, 2016The match of songs and sounds on Singing Saw delivers on all the promise of his earlier records, while firmly establishing Morby as one of the best singer/songwriters going.
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Apr 14, 2016As a whole, Singing Saw is Morby’s best work.
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May 27, 2016Not a lot of sky over NYC, but Kevin Morby capitalizes on any glimpse of it.
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Apr 14, 2016While he may not be breaking new ground here, Morby shows that there’s plenty of resonance yet to be mined from familiar tropes while also finally finding a distinct voice within.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 33 out of 36
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Mixed: 0 out of 36
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Negative: 3 out of 36
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May 2, 2019
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Apr 25, 2016
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Apr 19, 2016