- Record Label: Arts & Crafts
- Release Date: Jul 12, 2005
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Alternative PressNot many albums make you smile so much your face hurts. [Oct 2005, p.156]
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It's hard to imagine a band coming along this year with a better or more enjoyable debut.
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So euphoric are the multiple highlights here that one can overlook the occasional dalliance with silliness.
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Underwater Cinematographer isn't your quintessential debut album. It's too complex, too inquisitive, and too ambitious.
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It's the conviction and passion within the singing -- both male and female -- that wins me over in the end.
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UncutTMSR are a bit more focused and less shaggily psychedelic than [Broken Social Scene], but certainly never short on ideas. [Mar 2006, p.91]
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The next album from the Most Serene Republic will be the real deal breaker, though; they'll have to define their role within Arts & Crafts either by diverging from the Broken Social Scene sound, or by mimicking it even more.
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Instead of the charming, shaggy stoner vibe that permeates most of the current A&C catalog, Cinematographer shows off a nerdier, bookish quality.
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The Most Serene Republic demonstrate plenty of talent in frustratingly short bursts on their debut.
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Although several of the tracks on Underwater Cinematographer lack a certain individuality, the remainder brim with creativity and the notion that there's something spectacular around the corner.
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Spirals downstream into dreary non-sequiturs faster than the glue addict who lives four blocks from me.
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Now, we’re certainly all pro-happiness and exuberance, but the same doggedly optimistic message reiterated during several songs begins to sound more than a little shallow, even if such statements have a way of lending themselves more grandeur than they deserve.
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MagnetSuggests some arcane Canuck payment scheme in which lyricists are compensated by the syllable. [#70, p.106]
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[They] could have easily narrowed the selections from their debut into a three song EP, or possibly even a single. In nixing eight or more of the songs from Underwater Cinematographer, the band would've also cut down on all the annoying shouting, half-melodies, pompous song structures and garbled lyrics.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 13
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Mixed: 2 out of 13
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Negative: 1 out of 13
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davegFeb 21, 2007this album does not get enough credit.
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MagomraJan 30, 2006
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bobcDec 12, 2005Amazing! some of the best music all year!