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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
The Kansas City troubadour’s seventh album is an epic ode to the fragility of life and the consequent need to cherish love, joy and family.
90
With This Is A Photograph, he offers the wisest and most assured rendering of the Middle American vision he’s been honing of late, one where Dylan-esque anti-singing narrates impassioned, earnest and earthen tales of family, place, love and heroes, and a crack band shakes the rafters.
90
Kevin Morby’s past solo output has occasionally fit this bill: quality, yes, but not quite essential, interesting without delivering a K.O. standard punch to where it hurts. This Is A Photograph changes all that.
90
Morby reveals his fears, joys, and hopes with these songs in a way more direct and on the surface than any of his other albums.
85
It establishes him as one of the most prolific and trustworthy voices in the modern music of America.
85
On This is a Photograph, Morby somehow rarely sounds morbid. As he meditates on time's eventual victory over us all, he finds that knowledge to be a reason not to resign, but to rally.
82
Usually content to stay in one lane per album, Morby gracefully exhibits the breadth of all his capabilities on his seventh.
80
A record that feels warmer, wiser and less forced than any of his albums so far.
80
Morby’s seventh studio album This Is A Photograph invokes ... a triumphant sunrise, its sound heralding the early glow of a rustic southern American morning.
80
Morby’s seventh album was inspired by sickness and mortality but his elegiac songs focus on life’s transience and joys.
9mo
80
US singer-songwriter probes at the existential questions on best record yet.
80
The singer-songwriter’s seventh album is a house of spirits, haunted by the ghosts of Jeff Buckley, of Jay Reatard, of childhood and innocence and moments long past.
76
It’s in these moments that Morby shines as that everyman – a role he has been crafted into through those various influences he holds up so high.
73
The singer-songwriter’s seventh record is a Memphis vision quest—an earnest, ambitious collection that touches on family, nostalgia, and mortality.
60
This Is A Photograph is an album which aims for an impressively grand vision, but rarely hits the mark. In its less grandiose moments, though, it’s frequently successful, providing the listener with a number of lovely folk tunes.
Singer-songwriter Kevin Morby’s This Is A Photograph is actually an album. Come on, guys! Are you dumb?
This album kinda sounds like someone listened to one half of Arctic Monkeys’ 2007 record Favourite Worst Nightmare, and composed their own music inspired by it. However, this one has more spice to it. Instead of just generic guitars, bass, and drums, Photograph has saxophone, piano, synths, something that sounds like a sitar, string arrangement, harmonica, and banjo. And despite ... read more
Like one of M Ward's best albums...only with more warmth and personality (...but a less distinctive voice).
Los detalles que guardan las fotografías
Kevin Morby es un cantautor originario de Texas con una sólida discografía totalmente enraizada en el Folk y la Americana; a él se le puede colocar como la contraparte masculina de su novia Waxahatchee o de otras artistas como Angel Olsen y Sharon Van Etten, con quienes comparte una visión íntimamente personal de la música que trasciende hacia un plano llanamente reflexivo, aunque a diferencia de ellas ha ... read more
No, Kevin, this is clearly an album...
... and it started out pretty strong but it lost its direction on the way. If you're big on folk and country: Give it a try, you might like it. If you don't, don't.
I liked the last "Woods" record a lot and I became curious when I saw that this was released. He is the bass player of the band, I believe. The instrumentals on this album range from boring to "oh, this is kind of pleasant" and the lyrics are sometimes moving and feel ... read more
Intro — NR
This Is A Photograph — 8
A Random Act Of Kindness — 7.7
Bittersweet, TN — 6.7
Disappearing — 5.5
A Coat Of Butterflies — 5.3
Rock Bottom — 8.5
Forever Inside A Picture — NR
Five Easy Pieces — 6.8
Stop Before I Cry — 7.3
It’s Over — 7.5
Goodbye To Good Times — 7.1
|
likes: 6/12
overall final score: 70.40
favs: Rock Bottom • This Is A Photograph • A Random AOK
least fav: Goodbye To Good Times
worst: ... read more
Nice singer-songwriter album. Because of the arrangements and the instrumentation (strings, horns, flute, backing vocals) it conveys the attitude of sophisticated and elaborated chamber (pop) music. It also contents a wonderful duo with folk singer Erin Rae McKaskle,, "Bittersweet, TN". Partly it's in the balance to get a bit mawkish, such as "Stop Before I Cry" with its strings or the arrangement in "It's over" with it's flute. Nevertheless a good deal of ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Intro 0:32 | 60 |
| 2 | This Is a Photograph 3:30 | 84 |
| 3 | A Random Act of Kindness 4:14 | 81 |
| 4 | Bittersweet, TN 4:13 feat. Erin Rae | 87 |
| 5 | Disappearing 3:27 | 75 |
| 6 | A Coat of Butterflies 6:40 | 75 |
| 7 | Rock Bottom 2:44 | 78 |
| 8 | Forever Inside a Picture 0:14 | 64 |
| 9 | Five Easy Pieces 4:11 | 80 |
| 10 | Stop Before I Cry 4:58 | 76 |
| 11 | It's Over 5:21 | 76 |
| 12 | Goodbye To Good Times 5:14 | 70 |
Total Length: 45 minutes
Year End Lists
| #7 | / | MondoSonoro |
| #9 | / | MAGNET |
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| #11 | / | Spectrum Culture |
| #17 | / | MOJO |
| #24 | / | Far Out Magazine |
| #31 | / | Uncut |
| #32 | / | NME |
| #46 | / | The Line of Best Fit |
| #49 | / | Paste |
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1y
Kevin Morby and Adrianne Lenker would have been an legendary duo on Big Thief's most recent album.
Added on: March 3, 2022