• Record Label: Sub Pop
  • Release Date: Feb 5, 2021
Metascore
69

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 10
  2. Negative: 0 out of 10
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  1. Feb 3, 2021
    80
    The full blast of bass and guitars from Nic Bueth and Alex Sprogis that respectively fortify tracks like The Big Curve, Decoration and Slideshow are as grotty, inexorably heavy and domineering as the world frontman Charlie Drinkwater finds himself lashing out at.
  2. Feb 10, 2021
    74
    The band put themselves on display nonetheless, incoherency and imperfection be damned. Uppers provides thrills aplenty from a band making their mark during strange times as our new normal sets in, intent on seizing their second chance.
  3. 70
    The only issue for this record is that thereafter it meanders far too much and those lyrics that you loved at the beginning you begin resenting at the end as it almost becomes a caricature of itself. ... That doesn’t stop it being something great to chew on. Uppers is a great place to start and should rubber stamp TV Priest as one of, if not your favorite new act.
  4. Feb 5, 2021
    70
    Hopefully time will lead TV Priest to devise a more individual musical personality, but judging from Uppers, they have more than enough talent to make them a group to watch.
  5. Uncut
    Feb 3, 2021
    70
    Thankfully, there's more than just wannabe Fall stuff here, offering up a variety of teeth-rattling noises. [Jan 2021, p.32]
  6. Feb 3, 2021
    70
    In almost sequential fashion, the 12 tracks here capture a band trying to wiggle out of an aesthetic straitjacket one buckle at a time, evolving from a band you think you’ve heard a million times before into one you feel like you’re just getting to know.
  7. Feb 10, 2021
    60
    While at some points their aversion to easy melody and obvious structure hoists them by their own petard, there’s more than enough strange stuff here to quicken the pulse and capture the heart.
  8. With so many influences laid bare, it does take until seven-minute-long crescendoing closer ‘Saintless’ to truly showcase what they can achieve musically.
  9. Feb 4, 2021
    60
    The blistering debut is a collection of delightfully pungent tracks, delivered in all their unashamed, reckless glory.
  10. Feb 3, 2021
    50
    TV Priest's debut is good but not necessarily enough to poke through the maelstrom quiet yet.

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