Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Jul 7, 2023It's moments like this, the staticky intro to "Lightning Comes Up from the Ground," and the distant thunder-like, well-spaced drum strikes of "Conversation Is a Flowstate" that elevate what are already lovely songs to something that feels transformative.
-
Jul 6, 2023But The Greater Wings, for all its inevitable connotations, is not a downer. It’s a beautiful testament to life and to the people we love and that keep us going, physically and spiritually. It’s also a testament to moving forward with grace and strength, and rediscovering that longing to live.
-
Jul 7, 2023The closing run of tracks on the album are some of the most musically interesting she has released to date.
-
Jul 5, 2023Stands as both love letter and elegy and encompasses the deeply held emotions of both. [Aug 2023, p.86]
-
Jul 14, 2023A career-best work that serves both as a tribute to and means of overcoming a life sadly gone.
-
Jul 6, 2023The considerable power of The Greater Wings lies in how Byrne makes that specific feeling universal, and how resonant it becomes in the artfully woven tapestry of her music.
-
Jul 11, 2023The Greater Wings is no funeral, and Byrne’s calm assurance renders her words irresistibly commanding.
-
Jul 25, 2023The Greater Wings is sublime and difficult to fault. Fans of Byrne will be delighted and moved to hear her grow even further as an artist and songwriter, not least in her coming to terms with grief and pain. New listeners to Byrne will surely find an artist of great pathos and empathy whose talents may now get the wider hearing they deserve.
-
Jul 7, 2023Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell is perhaps the closest comparison in terms of musical and emotional tenor, but Byrne’s album is ultimately as singular as the woman singing it, and as unforgettable as a departed friend.
-
Jul 5, 2023The Greater Wings joins Sufjan Stevens's Carrie & Lowell and Ghosteen by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in the ranks of minimalist yet multi-layered, masterfully realised albums that are unmistakably rooted in loss and grief but ultimately transcend their painfully personal origins by blooming into life-affirming, universal beauty and resonance.
-
Jul 10, 2023At moments, Byrne is rhapsodic, her vocals soaring above the fluttering electronics of ‘Summer Glass’. Later, she stares down the darkness, as on the deceptively gentle ‘Lightning Comes Up From The Ground’ or on closer ‘Death Is The Diamond’.
-
Jul 5, 2023Her voice is excellent throughout – defiant and unwavering over Littmann's production – and sonically it is patient, cinematic and hopeful. A refuge, perhaps, for anyone who has been on the receiving end of the confounding and cosmic world of grief.
-
Jul 5, 2023Here are profound expressions of timeless love, nostalgic memories of relationships past, reflections on fulfillment, grief, desire, belonging and habitual non-belonging. [Aug 2023, p.35]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 7 out of 10
-
Mixed: 3 out of 10
-
Negative: 0 out of 10
-
Jul 13, 2023Gorgeous mediations on grief, desire, connection, and self-knowledge. Beautiful production and stunning lyrics
-
Aug 22, 2023
-
Aug 13, 2023Uma das melhores descobertas que fiz no ano. Um álbum coeso, bem feito, com coração, ritmo e talento puro.