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Where Have You Been All My Life?
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Where Have You Been All My Life? Image
Metascore
65

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

  • Summary: Recorded live in one day, the fourth full-length release for the indie folk band led by Conor O'Brien re-records some tracks from its previous three albums with new stripped-down arrangements.
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Top Track

Everything I Am Is Yours
I am just a man to bend all the wires tight rope walking fool balanced on desire I can not control these ever changing ways so how can I be sure the... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Record Collector
    Jan 22, 2016
    80
    The bleak lyrics are countered by a perky tempo, setting up an interesting tension. If much of the album runs on familiar, well-oiled tracks, The Waves shows what Villagers can achieve when they stretch themselves.
  2. Mojo
    Jan 7, 2016
    80
    The wiry Dubliner is stealthily building a similarly indelible songbook. [Feb 2016, p.92]
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  3. Pitchfork
    Jan 12, 2016
    75
    The drastic acoustic reinterpretation on this album feels like the song’s natural state, the long-building crescendo threatens to swallow the singer before he has finished saying his piece.
  4. The Guardian
    Jan 7, 2016
    60
    He makes the odd misstep, with Hot Scary Summer’s slightly hackneyed melodies and The Soul Serene’s vague meaning lessening the album’s overall rawness. But, as with Bright Eyes, Damien Rice and other artists to whom Villagers are often compared, O’Brien shows signs of a visceral intensity.
  5. NOW Magazine
    Jan 14, 2016
    60
    While half the fun is spotting the differences between the original and the remake, Where Have You Been All My Life? is also an excellent intro to Villagers, a summary of five years in one album.
  6. Clash Music
    Jan 12, 2016
    60
    It ultimately falls between two stools - not giving a true portrayal of a Villagers live show, and failing to mix-up tracks enough to justify this ‘re-imagining’ of older material.
  7. Q Magazine
    Jan 7, 2016
    40
    This isn't a bold project and they haven't been expanded nearly enough. [Feb 2016, p.118]
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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Ricko
    Jun 26, 2020
    8
    Such is the quality of this mans songwriting, you can't go wrong with any Villagers release. Here we get a selection of songs from the first 3Such is the quality of this mans songwriting, you can't go wrong with any Villagers release. Here we get a selection of songs from the first 3 albums recorded live in the stripped down style of Villagers 3rd album "Darling Arithmetic". It sounds lovely and such is the precision of the playing that it is hard to believe that these are single take live recordings. So much so that it lacks the energy of a live record but equally loses the magic of the studio versions of the songs. This is a good album in its own context and when you go through it song by song. Having said all of the above, if you have the first 3 albums, then this is not necessary and is really more for completists as there are a few rarities ( the song "Memoir" written for Charlotte Gainsbourg and a lovely cover of Glen Campbells "Wichita Lineman". It's certainly not an entry point for newcomers as many of their best moments are absent but fans of Conor O'Brien will certainly enjoy it.… Expand

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