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- Critic score
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May 1, 2014Equally appropriately, with increased attention comes increased expectations and increased scrutiny, neither of which are met by this sophomore release.
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MojoApr 23, 2014Much of Supermodel feels alienatingly dense. [May 2014, p.86]
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Apr 4, 2014A couple of pseudo-anthems will likely nurse them through a handful of unearned headline gigs--but in all honesty, the world has no need for pop music this faceless, listless or sterile.
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Mar 28, 2014The album is lacklustre, and suffers for a lack of purpose and intent.
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Mar 27, 2014Hook-laced in all the right places, melodic, rhythmic, intelligent, addictive and slightly quirky: they don’t skimp on any of the ingredients here.
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Mar 25, 2014While nothing on the album quite reaches those lofty heights [of Pumped Up Kicks], Supermodel far outshines Torches as a whole.
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Mar 24, 2014It’s a collection of snapshots of a band stretching towards a brilliantly kaleidoscopic, eclectic new sound--and almost reaching it.
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Mar 24, 2014Foster may not be the subtlest lyricist ever to decry the excesses of western society, but his songwriting has filled out and, on the evidence of several tracks here, including Best Friend, he still knows how to craft a solid hook.
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Mar 24, 2014This is an album that suffers from having altogether too much surface and not nearly enough substance.
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Mar 21, 2014Forward isn’t always better. But for Foster the People, on Supermodel, it was the right direction.
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Mar 20, 2014Supermodel, sees them attempt to fuse the two using Nile Rodgersesque guitar licks, plus nods to Afrobeat and psych, in an unwieldy piece of soldering. At times, they pull it off.... Unfortunately their fusion doesn't always stick.
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Mar 20, 2014[An] album, which is comfortingly straightforward, despite Mr. Foster’s jagged sentiments.
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Mar 20, 2014The band experiments with world music (“Are You What You Want To Be?”) and psychedelia (“Pseudologia Fantastic,” “A Beginner’s Guide To Destroying The Moon”) but falls short.
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Mar 18, 2014The crux is the album’s smothering, reverb-heavy, more-is-more production style, which smooths over some of the off-kilter quirks that made Torches’ sprawl so alluring.
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Mar 18, 2014Supermodel unfurls with bright, sunny melodies that bloom on songs that pick up where its Grammy-nominated debut, “Torches,” left off.
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Mar 18, 2014The band’s songs are as dense to listen to as they are to contemplate.
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Mar 18, 2014Unlike Torches, Supermodel doesn’t have instant stickability. Instead, it is a slow grower. It’s worth it though, so be patient.
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Mar 18, 2014The default mode here is a soupy power mumble: Passion Pit without the passion, Imagine Dragons without imagination.
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Mar 17, 2014With Supermodel, his goal is not to make you like him, but rather to give you a sense of what it's like to be him. He pulls it off, and he throws in plenty of hooks along the way.
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Mar 17, 2014If Torches scratched the surface of twenty-something angst, then Supermodel takes that exploration a few steps deeper, revealing a more introspective, enigmatic, world-weary tone.
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Mar 17, 2014Had Supermodel ended with this potent one-two punch, one might be inclined to view the rest more charitably. Sadly, it finishes with two bits of acoustic muzak ("Fire Escape" and "Goats in Trees") and a bid to beat Imagine Dragons at its own game with the kind of frantic Meatloaf-goes-electronica favored in YA-movie soundtracks.
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Q MagazineMar 14, 2014The occasionally super Supermodel is an album of transition rather than a definitive statement. [Apr 2014, p.113]
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Mar 14, 2014Supermodel's failing is that it's copying one of the foundational records of this trend, which is, you guessed it, Torches. It's hard to think outside a box you built yourself.
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UncutMar 12, 2014The sound they've fashioned is glossy and supersaturated while still exhibiting the subversive impulse that yielded the supremely catchy but subtly sinister smash "Pumped Up Kicks." [Apr 2014, p.74]
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Mar 12, 2014Working on an epic, operatic canvas, Foster and his bandmates hide the spinach of existential angst into sweetly binge-worthy dance pop.
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Mar 12, 2014Although Supermodel is derivative, it’s more often inventively imitative, rather than devolving into out-and-out mimicry.
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Alternative PressMar 12, 2014Umpteen attempts at serious lyrics topple this album right off the runway. [Apr 2014, p.91]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 135 out of 183
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Mixed: 35 out of 183
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Negative: 13 out of 183
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Mar 18, 2014
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Jul 3, 2014
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Jul 28, 2014