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Jul 10, 2012By the dazzlingly innovative and heartfelt record's end, the band has worked in a bit of everything it has to offer, and offered it with winning sincerity.
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Jul 12, 2012The album is a melting pot of so many brilliant musical perspectives, which could only be channelled by a band with a gleeful, wide-eyed fascination with the possibilities of their music. And they succeed in their knowing but expertly-delivered goal: to sound like no other band out there.
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Jul 9, 2012The Dirty Projectors' best album by a mile holds that balance, all magnificent wobble, no collapse.
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Jul 9, 2012Wild, wooly, and willfully chaotic.
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Jul 3, 2012Swing Lo Magellan affords generous breathing space to Dirty Projectors' music: a context in which new levels of unpretentious eloquence positively flourish.
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Jul 17, 2012There is so much to both genuinely appreciate and enjoy on Swing Lo Magellan that it makes you wonder why these have to sometimes be exclusive ways to experience an album.
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Jul 11, 2012Dirty Projectors still get itchy at the prospect of sleek surfaces, and their uneasiness is a thrill to behold.
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Jul 9, 2012The band's least ornate batch of songs to date builds upon Longstreth's most direct and identifiable lyrics ever. Which means that Dirty Projectors have upped their emotional and structural accessibility all at once.
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Jul 27, 2012The channel still churns on Swing Lo Magellan, but Longstreth has built sturdy songs with solid foundations here, trapping his confusion in a container.
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Aug 8, 2012Sometimes brilliant, often infuriating, it's a must-check nonetheless.
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Jul 12, 2012The Dirty Projectors are still fantastic weirdos making fantastically weird music, but Swing Lo Magellan humanizes them by letting you see through to their heartstrings.
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Jul 12, 2012The band certainly doesn't sound one hundred percent confident (or even comfortable) moving into more accessible territory, but their fidgetiness results in one of the most intriguing listens of the year.
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Jul 12, 2012Every element is given space to shine--a nice break from the overproduced bedroom-recording sound that's become standard in indie rock.
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Jul 11, 2012It's the sound of Dirty Projectors just being themselves and fully justifying the royalty status Longstreth and Co. now enjoy.
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Jul 10, 2012The source of Swing Lo Magellan's charm, for it truly is a charming collection, is that it's a record that doesn't try be anything other than exactly what it is.
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Jul 9, 2012It may not be for everyone, but it's evidence that there are still some restless minds out there.
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Jul 9, 2012On the band's gorgeous sixth album, there's a new directness to the songs.
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Jul 9, 2012Swing Lo Magellan is an album that will break hearts, bring joy, and deliver emotional notes that few others could.
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Jul 9, 2012What really shines through the most on Magellan are the qualities that can be obscured when all the attention is paid to Dirty Projectors' obvious proficiency and omnivorous tastes: their enthusiasm and love for music. No matter how weird and challenging things might get, there's a feeling of joy that's palpable in the songs here.
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Jul 9, 2012Swing Lo Magellan packs as many different ideas as ever into a new set of songs while offering perhaps the clearest and most satisfying picture yet of what the band is about.
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Jul 6, 2012It's pretty f***ing awesome.
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UncutJul 5, 2012For the first time, Longstreth's words offer real value rather than verbose decoration. [Aug 2012, p.81]
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Jul 3, 2012This is an album that seems to spring from an indoor world of cerebral textures and bedroom experiments, a headphone odyssey for an era in which the rock gig has become a corporate-sponsored burlesque.
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Alternative PressJul 2, 2012These are some of the most challenging songs in the band's catalog, yet they're more approachable than ever before. [Aug 2012, p.88]
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Jul 2, 2012The result is an album that is far less-crowded than previous works and one that, on the whole, feels suitably bucolic.
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Jul 2, 2012Swing Lo Magellan, then--deadly serious even at its most eccentric, wilfully awkward even at its most accessible, dense and intricate even at its most freewheeling. Same as it ever was.
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Jul 2, 2012The best moments of Swing Lo Magellan transcend whatever intentions their author may have had, as amazing songs are wont to do.
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Sep 13, 2012Dirty Projectors has never done so much with so little, a rare feat reiterated by the disarming, insistent standout, "Gun Has No Trigger."
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Jul 3, 2012It should be thrillingly anarchic; instead, it just meanders.
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Jul 3, 2012When Longstreth uses his newfound focus to shake up his methods... the results are often startling.
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Jul 27, 2012They have it in them to write great pop music or truly important experimental music, but Dirty Projectors have to decide where they want to end up before they start.
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MagnetJul 18, 2012Swing Lo Magellen sounds forced and cluttered... highlights a dearth of skill when it comes to self-editing. [No.89 p.54]
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Jul 13, 2012On "Irresponsible Tune," leader Dave Longstreth harnesses the magic of bygone vocal groups like the Orioles and the Comedian Harmonists, singing about "a world crooked, f***ed up and wrong" and, briefly, makes it right.
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Jul 12, 2012Swing Lo Magellan features some of the Dirty Projectors' most straightforward pop songs to date.
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Jul 12, 2012After exploring some most unlikely corners, Swing Lo Magellan is arguably its best at its simplest.
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Jul 9, 2012[Swing Lo Magellan] is instantly likeable. It makes perfect sense, but unravels into nonsense and complexity on second glance.
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Jul 2, 2012While some listeners might find the Projectors' rather knowing idiosyncracy off-putting and smug, there are songs here that suggest the band has finally found the formula that finely balances its well-meaning musical intellectualism with actual pop songs.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 83 out of 92
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Mixed: 5 out of 92
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Negative: 4 out of 92
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Jul 11, 2012
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Dec 18, 2012
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Aug 19, 2012