Crab Day

Cate Le Bon - Crab Day
Critic Score
Based on 23 reviews
2016 Ratings: #484 / 1004
User Score
Based on 86 ratings
2016 Rank: #441
Liked by 5 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Loud and Quiet
It’s quite a leap from the scuzzy garage of the superb ‘Hermits on Holiday’ – the LP Le Bon jointly released with Tim Presley last year – and even better for it, too.
90
The Line of Best Fit

By coalescing a number of everyday influences – from Television to John Cale – and adding her own distinctive formula, Crab Day doesn’t really sound like anything else out there.

84
Northern Transmissions

The effects Crab Day will leave on listeners are priceless.

81
Pitchfork

Crab Day is a voyage into doubt led by a queasy compass, and a ringleader who's prepared to stake out uncertain territory. Le Bon always keeps you guessing, making the old traditions of guitar-oriented rock feel arbitrary, too.

80
The Arts Desk
An art-rock winner from the now California-based Welsh maverick.
80
PopMatters

The beauty of Crab Day is that it can be dismantled and its individual components laid bare to reveal itself as a stunning work of alchemical mastery, or it can be enjoyed simply as a singular, coherent musical object which still aims to disrupt the segregationist agenda of a corporate-run, institutionalized music machine.

80
Uncut

Since rising to attention with 2009's Me Oh My, Cate Le Bon has turned out four albums of arch, otherworldly guitar pop, of which Crab Day is surely the best yet.

80
The Guardian
Long may Le Bon continue to weird up the rulebook.
80
DIY
Asking familiar questions in downright bizarre ways, with a musical palette that continues to revel in awkwardness, slipperiness, and experimentation, Cate Le Bon is a dab hand at holding a warped mirror up to life, and reflecting things in unexpected ways by now.
80
The Skinny

Crab Day is a madcap wonder, and if its singular aesthetic is ultimately less an advancement of the vision and more a honing of the craft, its offbeat artistry is way beyond the everyday humdrum.

75
The 405

Crab Day is an idiosyncratic and imaginative record, with fresh highlights appearing on every listen.

70
Drowned in Sound

A few years in the California sun doesn’t seem to have affected Cate Le Bon’s music too much, and thank goodness for that. She’s always had an ear for the tuneful — and the abstruse — and her fourth album, Crab Day, doesn’t find her deviating from that left field trajectory.

70
Under the Radar

It's more of an invitation to wonder than it is a self-explanatory LP, which makes for a powerful resonance with Le Bon's exciting new beginning.

70
AllMusic

Crab Day is a largely canonical affair, despite all of the extra window dressing.

70
musicOMH
When Le Bon gets the balance right ... she is undoubtedly one of the most interesting, original singer-songwriters out there. She over-eggs the pudding occasionally, but that’s a small price to pay for adventure.
67
Consequence of Sound

Rather than achieving that undeniable emotional pull, Crab Day ends up taxing, rather than delighting, the listener.

60
NME

While the art-wonk approach is naturally distancing, songs like ‘I’m A Dirty Attic’, ‘Yellow Blinds, Cream Shadows’, ‘We Might Revolve’ and ‘How Do You Know’ include just enough melodic allure to draw you into Cate’s world of crustacean crookedness.

60
Mojo
Sometimes it's a bit repetitive or her voice goes trebly, but then you get What's Not Mine's Bjork-style weirdness.
60
God Is in the TV

Le Bon’s Crab Day is a place you’d like to visit occasionally but maybe not stay because whilst you will undoubtedly happen upon some wonderful views, sometimes its a bloody uncomfortable place to be: the sound of an artist exploring new terrains while falling apart in front of our ears. Its a curious oddity indeed.

60
Spectrum Culture
LeBon’s given us plenty to consider and plenty with which to while away the hours, all in the space of 10 not-so-simple songs.
60
Q Magazine

It's defiantly idiosyncratic and at times genuinely bonkers, yet despite that, Crab Day never once feels willfully obtuse or--that dreadful work--"kooky."

40
The Independent
She lacks rhythmic ingenuity: most tracks just stump along in unaccented 4/4, the spiky riffs cycling dully over and over.
dustymoth
90

Perfect off Kilter joy

87

Mug Museum is one of my favourite records of all time and this did not let me down in the slightest. The instrumentals are fuller, but the intimate and warm sense of nostalgia remains in tact.

A really fun record, especially in a lyrical sense. She is truly one of the best songwriters around at the moment.

Best tracks: Wonderful, We Might Revolve, Yellow Blinds, Cream Shadows and What's Not Mine.

dearsongs
NR

Especially dig the title track, Love is Not Love, I'm a Dirty Attic & What's Not Mine.

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Added on: January 29, 2016