- Record Label: Kranky / Constellation
- Release Date: Nov 4, 2002
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
The band is making the finest music in the history of its collective.
-
BlenderYanqui U.X.O.'s five long tracks unfold in distinct movements, like symphonic '70s prog, but with rawer, emotional atmospherics. [#13, p.93]
-
Lift Your Skinny Fists told a story, included more extremes in volume and emotion, and added vocal samples. Yanqui, thus, is more subtle, more restrained. Yet it's also more moody, more cerebral, more intense.
-
While most of Slow Riot and at least parts of Skinny Fists shine through from a distance, much of what makes this album great is its painstaking detail.
-
MojoSits to the right of the likes of Philip Glass and Glenn Branca while outdoing the experimentalism of either Radiohead or Sigur Ros. [Jan 2003, p.98]
-
Yanqui U.X.O. is the work of a band that has finally become confident in its popularity and influence.
-
The tracks on Yanqui are content to continue building to bored, satiated endings we can see coming 20 minutes in advance.
-
Yes, of course it's a touch on the pretentious-sounding side, and it's also one of the most remorselessly miserable records of the decade so far, but none of this should discourage you from embracing it wholly.
-
Q MagazineThe usual barrage of angry cello instrumentals. [Dec 2002, p.103]
-
A difficult and rewarding thrill.
-
SpinVerbal sound bites once provided subtext for Godspeed's cinematic symphonies. But on Yanqui, those voices have fallen silent, and there's too much barren drift. [March 2003, p.120]
-
The band should be proud of Yanqui U.X.O. -- it proves that they're not hopelessly married to the fine-print details of their formula, and that they can still wring fresh ideas from familiar territory.
-
What remains is a sometimes cold, sometimes confusing collection of epics that are more intricate than anything GYBE have ever created.
-
Stripped of some of Godspeed's hallmarks, including its creepy spoken-word samples and propensity for building to an overbearingly climactic full-on pummel, the disc's power lies more in its subdued shading and slow, methodical builds.
-
The WireMore substantial, positive and dynamic. [#225, p.58]
-
UncutInnovations are few.... Still, when these nocturnes, crescendos and intimations of apocalypse remain so musically rich and emotionally powerful, it seems churlish to demand more. [Dec 2002, p.130]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 51 out of 54
-
Mixed: 1 out of 54
-
Negative: 2 out of 54
-
JonLNov 15, 2006
-
MitchMOct 2, 2006Great album. Their best hands down.
-
HTamSep 14, 2006