Suicide Songs

MONEY - Suicide Songs
Critic Score
Based on 18 reviews
2016 Ratings: #276 / 1004
User Score
Based on 89 ratings
2016 Rank: #420
January 29, 2016 / Release Date
LP / Format
Bella Union / Label
Indie Pop / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Drowned in Sound

Despite its impending theme of hopelessness, Suicide Songs delivers on every level – not least of which is highlighting Jamie Lee as one of the finest wordsmiths of his generation.

80
The Guardian
The sound is vast, yet ornate and pretty: a supersized cross between Spiritualized and Echo and the Bunnymen at their most orchestral. It’s uplifting, and needs to be – stripped of all those sonic baubles, Jamie Lee’s words might appear maudlin.
80
Clash
Equally fragile and resplendent in its execution, it's the kind of album that stays with you long after its haunting close.
80
The Skinny

Suicide Songs sees the trio perfect what they started to build on their debut. The murky allure of the Northwest is still a prominent aesthetic, yet second time round they have the confidence to shed more light on what was previously kept quietly in the shadows.

80
The Line of Best Fit

This is not as bleak or as unrelenting a record as it might seem on the face of it, and it isn’t, either, quite the record we might have expected to follow The Shadow of Heaven. Rather than build on that record’s elegance and lightness of touch, MONEY have traded it out for something less polished, that’s often brutal in its emotional delivery.

80
No Ripcord

Suicide Songs juggles anguish and optimism in equal measure, somehow mournful and triumphant in search for some kind of personal salvation.

80
AllMusic
The crowning achievement is that all of the musical and lyrical poetry works together to make a haunting, howling album that, despite outward signs, is above all tuneful and engaging.
80
musicOMH
While the pudding is occasionally over-egged, in general this is a work of great individuality and poise that should increase MONEY’s currency as one of the best young British bands to emerge in recent years.
77
Pitchfork
While another record of young Brits singing songs about despair and getting smashed at the pub isn’t exactly a novel concept, MONEY manage to make the prospect of weathering your own personal apocalypse sound not only beautiful, but transformative.
75
The 405

The contemplative, climactic nature of Suicide Songs, filled with layers of swirling strings, glorious brass sections and celestial vocals, resonates with an affirming sense of having confronted death face to face.

70
Under the Radar
The turbulence of it sits a little uncomfortably, yet somehow the non-identity of the band's new sound forms a backdrop for frontman Jamie Lee's despairing poetry to a tee.
70
Loud and Quiet
Now a trio, Money have become impressionistic in their approach, loosely daubing sounds onto the canvas, with broad brushstrokes.
67
Consequence of Sound

If their 2013 debut, The Shadow of Heaven, diluted Lee’s dramatics with watery, almost tropical production, then Suicide Songs lays out more fertile ground for his melodrama.

60
DIY
The visceral imagery and headlines that ushered in ‘Suicide Songs’ ends up serving to hold it back a little; an album that’s excellent at times, but which arrived with preconceptions so strong that could never be matched.
50
PopMatters
On this, their second album, MONEY have created a difficult listen.
Raiksheen
80

Underrated gem of past decade

usedtobe
91

Emotionally resonant and rapturous record of towering proportions, this second full-length release for the British trio is an ardent combination of emotions and crushing noise blending with vocalist Jamie Lee's heartrending vocals equally airy yet commanding that delivers poetry into songs. One of those few records that moved me to the core.

sourcherry24
95

Solid AOTY of 2016.

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Added on: November 1, 2015