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Jun 27, 2022On The Spur, Shelley captures the ache and the sweetness, the loss and the love, the coming and going of it all, with greater scale and skill than ever before.
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MojoJun 27, 2022Nuanced writing, full of tender challenges to lost souls, and Shelly's warmest sound yet. [Jul 2022, p.92]
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Jun 27, 2022It documents a gifted artist in full command of her gifts, and it's more than worthy of your time and attention.
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Jun 27, 2022It’s the sort of album which flows naturally along, with not a song, or even a lyric out of place. She’s been flying under the radar pretty consistently for a decade now, but if there’s more records of the quality of The Spur, more people will inevitably fall in love with Joan Shelley’s music.
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Jun 27, 2022This is a record full of elegant consolation, but one that refuses to patronise the listener.
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Jun 29, 2022It’s satisfying to hear Shelley’s sound growing more verdant, the way carefully tended topiary fills out in spring. But the words and her phrasing remain the heart of what she does, and the judicious spaciousness of these settings feels both admirable and essential, crafting austerity that’s as much bounty as balm, and as celebratory as it is reflective.
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Aug 18, 2022This is an album (her ninth overall including two self-released ones and fifth on her longtime label No Quarter) from a singer/songwriter at the top of her game.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 4
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Mixed: 2 out of 4
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Negative: 1 out of 4
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Mar 14, 2023