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Surfing Image
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Devendra Banhart and Priestbird's Greg Rogove join up to release their debut album.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. Alternative Press
    80
    Throw in lowered expectations and a few fine fellows, and Surfing becomes genuinely fun and ebullient effort, a toss-off that neither toss nor off. [Feb 2009, p.103]
  2. Uncut
    80
    What's more surprising is just how good it all is, the tunes great, the mood fun, the album infectious. [Mar 2009, p.92]
  3. The name accounts for the collaboration between Banhart and Priestbird's Greg Rogove, both of whom sing and bang out a nimble mix of time-tucked rock on a debut album with lots of strange, surprising rewards.
  4. Surfing troublingly ends with three plodding failures (including the seven-minute "Sayulita") that feel at odds with the record's fuck-all spirit.
  5. Like much of the jokey stuff on Surfing, these songs are far more annoying than they are clever. And they don’t even begin to approach being funny.
  6. Despite Rogove’s contribution and support from the likes of the Strokes’ Fabrizio Moretti among others, Surfing illuminates the problems that have dogged Banhart since the jump: He can make really great pieces of ‘60s folk and pop homage, but has terrible self-editing skills and has trouble avoiding lameness, sad attempts at humor and bad taste.
  7. Under The Radar
    30
    Megapuss seems like one bad decision after another. [Year End 2008]

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of