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The Back Room is a fine album that proves you can look backward while paving the way forward.
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It’s how Interpol would sound like if they dealt with universal themes and reflection rather than singing about fellatio fantasies with Stella, or their length of loves.
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It's an album of consistently high quality from start to finish.
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Alternative rock hasn't seen anything like this since the release of Turn on the Bright Lights. The catch: not only is The Back Room better, it holds promise for even better things in the future.
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A debut that will endure.
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If you were disappointed by 'Antics' then this'll make up for it, and if Interpol's last offering did agree with you then you'll spend the rest of '05 at least giving this a great big hug.
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The longer you listen, the better they become.
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MojoGuitars, sounding like synths, soar into the stratosphere, and intense crescendos linger over delicate, breathy passages. [Aug 2005, p.94]
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Alternative PressWhere [Interpol] often seem weighed down by their own miserable aura, Editors sound brightest in teh depths of their blackened pop gems. [Apr 2006, p.204]
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Leavening the melancholy with a tense, literate sense of foreboding, The Back Room flows like an obsidian wave from first song to last.
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The Back Room is an agreeable, sturdy, and surprisingly re-playable debut, one which should probably keep any brooding college kid who’s worn out his copy of Antics happy for the coming autumn.
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Q MagazineAs much as The Back Room is a victory for style, it also strikes a blow for substance. [Aug 2005, p.135]
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"The Back Room" is, principally, a triumph.
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Under The RadarEditors' sound is deeply and thoroughly derivative, to be sure. But they do it so well that by the time each chorus rolls around, you won't even notice your Robert Smith mascara running. [#10, p.110]
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The Back Room is an assured debut album from a promising band.
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It is such a perfect counterfeit that it feels like the genuine article.
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Paste Magazine[They] possess a knack for tempering melodrama with minor keys and predictable beats. [Apr/May 2006, p.102]
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They’re good at what they do, but what they’re doing is painting-by-numbers from someone else’s book.
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Entertainment WeeklyBands like Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen are hard acts to follow, especially when they're followed so deliberately. [24 Mar 2006, p.70]
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Editors sound like an earnest rock band who grew up loving the same bands as the current batch of revivalists, but beyond the workmanlike interpretations of their heroes, it's hard to swallow.
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The Back Room has the feeling of an album cobbled together too quickly.
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Rolling StoneBecause these swirls of desperation are as much about aura as fully formed tunes, their payoff is negligible. [23 Mar 2006, p.65]
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The album starts repeating itself and the returns start diminishing.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 97 out of 112
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Mixed: 12 out of 112
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Negative: 3 out of 112
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EdgarApr 30, 2007Truly spectacular!
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DJApr 8, 2007
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kaytMay 17, 2006