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Aug 9, 2013Soft Will is certainly pleasant enough (which shouldn’t really be what you’re striving for with a rock album), and I’m sure is being hailed by indie taste makers everywhere who like their rock on the sterile side.
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Jun 12, 2013The subject matter gives depth to the record, but sometimes it feels like Smith Westerns are filling in templates instead of writing songs.
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Jun 27, 2013Smith Westerns have proven themselves adept chameleons and excel in their new style. It’s just tough not to miss the old one.
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Jun 27, 2013Soft Will, like previous Smith Western albums, still brims with hooks but it never quite resolves if it’s still just good-time summer pop, dark-night-of-the-soul rumination or some sort of Summerteeth-esque middle ground.
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Jun 25, 2013On their third album, they move far away from their garage-rock starting point and construct an expertly lyrical world of yearning and insinuation.
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Jul 10, 2013It's a lovely place that Soft Will fashions here, but it sounds hesitant about pulling you in, perhaps because its creators are secretly concerned that you'll realize you aren't really going anywhere.
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Jun 25, 2013The tempered songs of Soft Will, however, don’t feel thoughtfully restrained as much as deflated of enthusiasm.
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Jun 24, 2013All of the delicate, precious tom buildups that segue into invariably lofty choruses, all laced with the same pining slide guitars, overlay the record with a strummy, mid-tempo delirium that sets in once the considerable swagger of the first three tracks wears off.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 18
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Mixed: 0 out of 18
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Negative: 0 out of 18
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Aug 22, 2014