Wash the Sins Not Only the Face

Esben and the Witch - Wash the Sins Not Only the Face
Critic Score
Based on 24 reviews
2013 Ratings: #790 / 1115
User Score
Based on 32 ratings
Liked by 1 person
January 21, 2013 / Release Date
LP / Format
Matador / Label
- / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
The Fly

An album of chilly, detached beauty.

80
The 405

If anything, it feels clearer, more focussed than its predecessor, much more honed. Here is a band with a direction, who knows what they're doing.

75
Under the Radar

Wash the Sins Not Only the Face sees this U.K. trio mature and finally deliver on so much of the promise they showed early on.

71
Paste

Esben and the Witch have a little growing to tackle still. Although appealing in a fantasy-genre glutton way, the album feels a little one-dimensional.

70
NME

Call it highbrow, call it highfalutin, but with ‘Wash The Sins…’, Esben are carving hulking tablets of stone boasting that intellect is nothing to be scared of. 

70
DIY

Bathed in a sort of auditory night vision, 'Wash The Sins...' is definitely ominous and creepy sounding, without it ever being a gruelling listening-experience. 

69
Beats Per Minute

They haven’t quite found it yet, but Esben and the Witch have the potential for an arresting and momentous album in them.

60
Consequence of Sound

The album’s perplexing textures and assured vocals, though, add density to the Brighton trio’s desolate mood and sinister themes.

60
No Ripcord

There’s a lack of variety to the album that sees much of it merge together into a misshapen mush, which, it’s true could be ascribed to that production work as so much of the album is swathed in gauziness that suspicions start to form that it’s to cover up for material that’s gossamer-thin

60
PopMatters

Despite lacking the gonzo fun of Violet Cries the raw material itself is stronger. 

58
Pitchfork

Wash the Sins is not a logical, concrete progression from Violet Cries and the Hexagons EP, but a competent if ultimately unmemorable reiteration of a message that wasn't particularly strong in the first place. 

40
Drowned in Sound

Esben and the Witch seem stuck on an autopilot where any levity is out of bounds and an abyss beckons for all the wrong reasons.

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Track List

  1. Iceland Spar
  2. Slow Wave
  3. When That Head Splits
  4. Shimmering 
  5. Deathwaltz 
  6. Yellow Wood
  7. Despair
  8. Putting Down The Prey
  9. The Fall Of Glorieta Mountain
  10. Smashed To Pieces In The Still Of The Night
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Added on: January 14, 2013