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Aug 18, 2011While mostly a California creation, Still Living echoes the sounds reverberating across the Pacific from New Zealand - think '80s/'90s bands like the Chills and the 3Ds, whose splashy reverb tanks were almost louder than their amps ("Call Me"). Or even Galaxie 500, whose Dean Wareham is a native Zealander ("Bradley").
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Aug 23, 2011From the performances, to the songwriting, to the production, Still Living is the group's strongest, most multi-dimensional album.
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UncutAug 19, 2011Ganglians take care to lace everything with bright, primary colour melodies, suggesting they might yet follow the likes of MGMT and Yeasayer into the mainstream. [Sep 2011, p.87]
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Sep 1, 2011Still Living has its share of baroque pop moments, but its strongest songs are the ones that rock the hardest.
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Aug 24, 2011The meat of Still Living isn't its quirks or vibes-it's the songwriting itself, and since the album fills two LPs and almost an hour of play-time, it has a whole lot of that.
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Aug 25, 2011Though they could still stand to pull back on the vocal fanfares, brushing away some of the gunk that mottled up their earlier records and doubling down on melody each open up new avenues in their sound, and Still Living finds Ganglians delivering on their early promise while stepping confidently toward whatever's next.
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Aug 22, 2011Too soon for July, the trio tends to fall back into the boredoms of late-summer garage jamming, though.
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Sep 23, 2011Still Living is undoubtedly a clear step in the right direction for this Sacramento trio displaying exponential growth while maintaining their penchant for infectious rock n' roll grooves.
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Sep 7, 2011For now, the band seems to get distracted too easily--or else they don't have a good enough ear for editing. But even if they do throw every idea into the mix, they could at least play a little faster to counteract the sleepiness induced by the duller, more typical '60s pop rehash they sometimes serve up.
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Sep 6, 2011Despite the missteps, the band still emanates a certain cheekiness that's rare these days, especially for a lot of oh-so-serious psych outfits.
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Aug 29, 2011Still Living is an unobjectionable album, and any of its songs, taken individually, are certainly a fine soundtrack to the final lazy days of summer. As a whole, though, Still Living barely limps along, only occasionally revealing flashes of semi-greatness, and it ultimately falls victim to its own aesthetics.
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Aug 24, 2011So much of Still Living is lost to completely monotonous-sounding songs, and while they are mixed impeccably and follow a certain rhythm, it's hard to get through the entire album in one sitting.