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Q MagazineJan 7, 2014Cults' combination of mid-'60s girl-group and cusp-of-the-'90s shoegazing is still bewitching but takes a more stripped-down form here, and packs more of a thwack. [Jan 2014, p.120]
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Nov 14, 2013The result is a great album that simultaneously wears its bruised heart on its sleeve (the lovelorn should be warned: it’s a real tearjerker at times), and sugars its melancholy with opulent musical arrangements.
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Nov 7, 2013Their second album remains indebted to 60s girl groups and bubblegum pop, but joyous songs are delivered through gritted teeth.
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Alternative PressOct 16, 2013Despite some bummer subject matter, this could be the year's most fun album. [Nov 2013, p.84]
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Oct 14, 2013It’s the love-struck youth of their typical songs striking out against the disappointment, and, like the album itself, coming out on top.
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Oct 14, 2013The album's sound is so alluring that it sometimes threatens to overwhelm the delicate vocals and melodies. Still, Static is a vivid, poignant tour of heartbreak that's much more enjoyable than that description suggests.
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Oct 15, 2013The layers at times get a little too thick, enough to hide some of Follin’s words. But as packed as the songs get with incident and sound, the gooey goodness of Cults’ candy pop wins out every time.
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Oct 14, 2013Cults are flipping open your gauzy shades and letting the sunshine in, letting you slap on your best Stepford smile as the world falls apart. What else should we do? Enjoy the ear-candy.
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Nov 19, 2013All told, Static is definitely worth your time, but it falls short of being the truly great record that Cults will hopefully go on to make.
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MagnetOct 18, 2013Static conveys some stylistic growing pains for the young band, but it's a captivating successor to one of the best debuts in recent years. [No. 103, p.52]
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Oct 17, 2013Static isn’t a perfect album, but it contains enough promising signs of evolution to predict a long career for Cults.
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Oct 15, 2013Whereas Cults' debut was more carefree in its breezy melodies, Static has a heavier heart, presenting a band with not only a better understanding of their music, but of each other as human beings.
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Oct 15, 2013On Static, they arrive at a place where they’re able to sustain new layers of complexity across their songs.
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Oct 15, 2013So far, Cults have relied on that brand of fresh, unbridled energy that fuels new groups like them, making Static a fine example of an album running perfectly off of kinetics.
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Oct 14, 2013Get me out of here, take me back: That's breaking up in a nutshell, and Cults till this soil multiple ways.
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Oct 14, 2013Cults' sophomore album sidesteps presumptions about a rising, major-label band and admirably finds contentment not in what they could be, but what they are right now.
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Oct 30, 2014Follin works aggressively on tone and lyrics in "So Far" and "Keep Your Head Up," but doesn't lose any pop rhythm amid the sonic wash and despair, even on closer "No Hope."
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Oct 24, 2013Brian Oblivion’s knack for delivering ’60s and ’70s guitar riffs and singer Madeline Follin’s slender voice shine through the dissonance at the most unexpected and welcome moments.
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Oct 15, 2013Cults is a pop band--albeit a very distinctive one--and Static only works when the band delivers on the melodies that made its debut so compelling.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 22 out of 25
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Mixed: 3 out of 25
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Negative: 0 out of 25
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Oct 15, 2013
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Oct 17, 2013