Richard Dawson - Peasant
Critic Score
Based on 15 reviews
2017 Ratings: #33 / 940
Year End Rank: #34
User Score
Based on 473 ratings
2017 Rank: #81
Liked by 40 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

95
The Line of Best Fit
Its significance, its profundity, its sheer exhilarating force will stay with you for far longer than just about anything else you’re likely to hear this year.
90
Tiny Mix Tapes

Peasant is Dawson’s most direct, nuanced, and haunting creation yet, a frayed tapestry of a community in peril, where each is left to their own struggles, their own prejudices, their own inflictions of cruelty from a universe that seems designed to rot us from within.

90
The 405

Peasant is a pretty staggering departure from the massed ranks of 2017’s batch of albums. It is a restorative, headstrong burst of inspiration from an artist with the courage to execute his vision without compromise. If ever an album deserved to rise above the fray, it is this one.

90
Loud and Quiet
‘Peasant’ is a potent and mournfully beautiful meditation on humankind’s inability to fix itself.
88
GIGsoup
‘Peasant’ has a lot to take in. Complex, ambitious and unwieldy it’s an album that would be admirable even if it didn’t quite work out. The fact that Dawson has created a record that lives up to and perhaps even exceeds the weight of its own aspiration is deeply impressive.
80
Pitchfork
His only limitation is the world he lives in. Here, he begins to transcend it.
80
The Guardian
Abstruse but weirdly accessible, recherche but pertinent, Peasant is quite an achievement.
80
Uncut
Bold and dense, tragic and hilarious, this is a record that binds together history, fantasy and personal revelation into a brilliant, uncompromising epic that shines like a beacon of hope in dark times.
80
The Needle Drop
Richard Dawson's sprawling and rustic tunes bring back a sense of olde English folklore and mysticism that isn't often heard in contemporary music.
70
AllMusic

If Richard Dawson is Fairport Unconventional, Peasant is his Liege & Lief, a strange but fascinating journey through the frameworks of British folk music as seen by one truly unique set of eyes.

WhatTheFunk
76

My eyelids are closed. A delicate thread of soothing brass wraps my eardrums tenderly, bringing to my foggy consciousness the promise of a peaceful awakening. I can not stretch my limbs, I will break the charm of this sweet music.

I frown. A trumpet stumbled, dragging the entire orchestra. The flow of sweetness has changed into a strangled gurgling. I feel like the victim of a morning joke, I open my eyes. Around me, my room has become a creepy forest, the comfortable material under my butt is ... read more

Toasterqueen12
89

Genre: Avant-Folk

Does anyone else think Richard Dawson looks a bit like an older Elitimesfour?

Damn Richard, ok! You're really going to make one of the most unique folk albums ever made full of great midevil sounds, 70s throwbacks, and eclectic production? ...ok man good on you dude have fun with that!

Like the weird, freaky cousin of Joanne Newsome, Peasant stands as a testimony to how art evolves. Where even a genre that seems to have potential reached the peak of experments like folk ... read more

MarkCooper
90

Original Score: 73

Spending more time with Peasant over the last year or so has given me a whole new appreciation of it. I'm kind of embarrassed at how little I originally paid attention to the lyrics on this thing, as they're basically the saving grace for the often-ugly and charmingly miserable instrumentation. Where most fantasy art (books, albums, movies, anything really) deals with the most special characters in a fantastical world, Richard Dawson's lyricism is extremely interesting in ... read more

CherryChase
86

Getting around to Richard Dawson’s Peasant made for a fantastic Sunday morning. Rustic rawness that falls in line with the yelping of an old soul. Talk about an album that knows it’s atmosphere and nails it on every level.

90

top 3: weaver, scientist, masseuse

ZeroTaste
87

Good.

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Track List

1Herald
2:17
75
2Ogre
6:56
94
3Soldier
4:51
86
4Weaver
5:57
86
5Prostitute
3:59
82
6Shapeshifter
4:30
79
7Scientist
4:48
88
8Hob
5:57
80
9Beggar
7:23
87
10No-One
1:19
82
11Masseuse
10:49
86
Total Length: 58 minutes
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Added on: May 24, 2017