For Those I Love - For Those I Love
Critic Score
Based on 15 reviews
2021 Ratings: #2 / 753
Year End Rank: #39
User Score
Based on 879 ratings
2021 Rank: #663
Liked by 77 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
NME

‘For Those I Love’ is not only an immaculate debut, but a beautiful record that speaks to anyone who’s ever loved and lost, anyone who might be mourning or just processing the days of youthful abandon, or perhaps those who need reminding that you can’t have shadows without the light.

100
The Independent

For Those I Love is as much a piece of history as it is a work of art ... A staggering album.

100
Dork

With a pain at times so real that it can almost be touched, its smartest trick is turning it into something approaching euphoria with its mix of poetry and exhilarating dance beats.

100
Gigwise

Balfe’s wounded outpourings are all too seldom heard from male voices across society, and for that reason, this is an album that will rightly be remembered for years to come.

100
The Forty-Five

Balfe couldn’t have expected that his album would land in a year where all too many people around the world are trying to pick themselves up after unexpected loss, but it’s a record of great solidarity, proving that memory is so much more than headstones and regrets over things that weren’t said.

100
The Irish Times

Balfe throws himself into these songs wholeheartedly, teeth gritted as he runs the gamut of anger, pain, nostalgia and sadness. As a result, he has made not only a powerful record but a potentially important one.

100
Evening Standard

David Balfe melds lively, often beautiful dance music and starkly personal spoken word on this powerful record.

90
Loud and Quiet

Each track is unique and there’s not a bad song here. Conversations between mates, exclamations about the demise of punk and unique beats wind themselves around the listener’s mind until it is completely claimed, fertile ground for an outpouring of pain and love and the unfairness and bittersweetness of history

90
Clash

It’s a story of survival, a project remarkable in its completeness. ‘For Those I Love’ is a truly exquisite achievement in which the redemptive hope that love and friendship provide is never allowed to sink beneath the waters.

80
musicOMH

Anchoring the album with his own painful history and never admitting defeat, Balfe has scripted a exhilarating album that contends with unimaginable loss whilst warmly celebrating persistence.

80
The Line of Best Fit

His creation of such an overt sense of nostalgia, grief, loss and mourning, whilst also making time to make statements on social justice issues is impressive.

80
The Guardian

A eulogy for a dead friend, David Balfe’s stirring debut combines lyrics on class, death and despair with clubland highs and hope.

80
Uncut

Like Dublin's answer to Mike Skinner or Burial, Dave Balfe relentlessly intones stories and reflections of urban life against akaleidoscopic and sometimes claustrophobic electro background, speckled with found sounds and home recordings.

80
Mojo

Haunted and intimate, Balfe’s deep brogue ultimately salvages hope from the wreckage.

80
Crack Magazine

Grief is a fickle monster, and on For Those I Love, Balfe captures the beast with a visceral clarity.

MySoftBulletin
80

This website confuses me

CLJesse
76

Ireland

YuriDING
40

I can't like "spoken word" albums, it sucks and EVERYBODY knows it.

"But what about the things he says? The lyrics are beautiful."

If I want to hear a man talking, I listen to a podcast or see a speech from the president. And if I want to see a guy talking on top of a song, I go to an appliance store, or to the market, where there is always someone talking about promotions over a song that is playing.

Just because the guy doesn't have a beautiful voice to sing and so he ... read more

Thisisjocabitch
67

Ever since I listened to this back in 2021, every now and then I will still listen in the back of my mind to the iconic:
"Oi hav a louv, aand et nevar faehdes"

lucasakalucas
74

why the critic gave this a 91

100

Heart wrenching record to which I've shed many tears. Lyrics that are unpretentious and real which leave a lasting impression. The stories of pain throughout this record somehow tell a tale of happiness. Masterpiece, must hear.

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Added on: January 13, 2021