- Record Label: Astralwerks / Licking Fingers
- Release Date: Jun 29, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Alternative PressA snow globe of an album that's sparkling, brilliant and only held back by gravity. [Aug 2004, p.106]
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New Musical Express (NME)An understated classic: a triumph of delicacy over decibels. [19 Jun 2004, p.56]
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FilterIt's simple, easy listening. [#11, p.98]
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Entertainment WeeklyThe staccato horns and guitar drones bathed in Wall of Gloom reverb provide just enough warmth to ward off frostbite. [23 Jul 2004, p.77]
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The tracks on The Concretes are easily their most accomplished, fluid statement to date.
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Under The RadarCompletes the near impossible accomplishment of making a mood record without becoming repetitive. [#7]
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There are moments when The Concretes ape Mazzy Star a little too closely for comfort on this album, but overplaying a talent for languorous, delicious fuzz pop is hardly the most horrific of crimes.
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UncutThe best thing to come out of Sweden for a while... apart from porn. [Jul 2004, p.95]
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Corralling such a large cast into anything like a coherent vision is no easy task, but it's one that the Concretes manage with some aplomb on a consistently spectacular album. [Amazon UK]
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Too good to be merely forgettable or a waste of a decade's worth of building and planning, but too uniform and flawed to stand out as a major achievement or even one of the year's best.
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Definitely mysterious, but the songs on this record are obvious when it comes to the Concretes influences.
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Even if The Concretes is slightly disappointing in some aspects, it also has more than enough charms in its own right.
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It starts with impressive gusto but meanders towards the end, drifting into slow, forgettable balladry.
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What's perhaps most interesting about the album is that it steers clear of most indie rock tropes.
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While the songs have a tendency to run together with an overall sameness, the album as a whole is greater than its individual parts.
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Music thats easier to admire than love.
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A decidedly schizophrenic experience, if a frequently beautiful and, at the very least, relentlessly promising one.
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Wispy and coquettish... a love-it-or-hate-it proposition.
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Q MagazineFine for a happy hour of poppy abstraction, but you may find it tough remembering much of it afterwards. [Jul 2004, p.113]
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Rolling StoneThe overall effect can be saccharine, but the Concretes' big orchestration and sweet fragility are a winning combo. [19 Aug 2004, p.122]
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All of this material is spirited, pleasant, and grounded in the context of rock history, but I'm still wondering who it is I'm listening to.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 11
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Mixed: 1 out of 11
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Negative: 3 out of 11
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DanB.Feb 6, 2005Love it. Tell me "Lonely As Can Be" is not absolutely amazing. Just tell me. I'll smack you upside the head if you do, tho.
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ParisPOct 22, 2004
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MarcusCOct 13, 2004Pure bliss. This is the best pop album of the year.