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Oct 16, 2020This is never going to replace your favourite Kevin Morby album, and it’s unlikely that it will make him new fans, but it feels like the kind of private delight that great artists bestow on their fans for their loyalty from time to time. Sundowner is Morby’s Harvest Moon, his Nebraska, his Hejira – a statement of intent made in the quietest way possible.
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MojoOct 13, 2020Even without explicit elegies, there's a sense Morby is permanently watching something sink into the horizon, suspending what's left in beautiful songwriting amber. [Nov 2020, p.80]
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Nov 12, 2020Despite its metaphysical optimism, Sundowner resonates not because it has the answers, but because it proves willing to hunt for them or, in their apparent absence, to create them.
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Oct 19, 2020Sundowner is sharper, more in sync with his previous records. It’s certainly referential, but it’s hardly completely retro.
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Oct 23, 2020Sundowner probably won't convert anyone who's not already a fan of Morby. It's his best album since 2016's Singing Saw, which found Morby transmuting his folk songs into a more adventurous place, but it stops short of attempting to push further into uncharted territory.
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Oct 14, 2020Sundowner's glow begins to fade in the album's latter half. The final two tracks, the instrumental "Velvet Highway" and "Provisions," are pleasant enough, but taper the album off on a muted note. It's a minimalist ending showing that less isn't always more.
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UncutOct 13, 2020Delicate, desert-baked confessionals a plenty. [Nov 2020, p.33]
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Oct 13, 2020Sundowner recalls the more relaxed and reflective moods of Morby's earlier albums.
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Oct 13, 2020The instrumentation and guitar playing in particular can sometimes feel like a serenade, to encapsulate such place and time easily lends credit to the talent of this songwriter and all of a sudden, you are a sundowner too.
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Oct 20, 2020Sundowner bears some resemblance to Morby’s 2016 release Singing Saw. That album excelled in creating a wild and compelling atmosphere because its songs — with their choral support, varied instrumentation, and grittier production — rose to the occasion. On Sundowner, Morby’s storytelling isn’t just the album’s centerpiece – it’s an overcompensation.
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Oct 20, 2020It’s still a well-produced record that plods along with a rustic charm and the occasional hook, but anyone who has followed Morby throughout his career knows he could be an icon in the modern indie-folk scene. Since 2017, however, it’s been a collage of pretty, forgettable albums. As it stands, Kevin Morby is as Kevin Morby does.
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Oct 16, 2020Given the somewhat disjointed making of this record – a journey that stretches from 2017 to mid-lockdown – it lacks the cohesiveness of recent material. The songs origins, however, have come from a completely different place for Morby, one more instinctive and reflective, as he jots down snapshots and musings eloquently into a handy piece of kit. Given that it kickstarted a new exploration in his songwriting, the resulting project is still worth savouring.