Minor Victories is frequently beautiful, and it’s the subtle application of the abrasive (on tracks such as Out To Sea) where this project really comes into its own; a few listens in, and captivation becomes its own reward.
While Minor Victories builds on its members' legacies, the band sounds more excited about the present and the future than looking back.
Minor Victories is the work of intimacy and candor. It goes beyond a one-off project and instead becomes a contained piece of longing and hurting. The cohesion behind it all should be the envy of any band whose members have the luxury of being in direct vicinity of one another.
Minor Victories is a thoughtful and regal opening bow, but you’ll want for a little more teeth when Act Two comes into play.
Overall, the experiments that succeed in Minor Victories pull the weight of the ones that don't and the collective product is praiseworthy from the standpoint of its dispersed alchemy alone.
The album sounds exactly like you would expect it to ... Throughout ... the frustration bubbles under the surface for the listener, that, competent and effecting as this album is, it could have been so much more.
It's hard to maintain interest in an album whose ten tracks stretch out to 50 minutes with such little range.
Minor Victories predictably commingles lengthy passages and oodles of noise with a gothic insouciance, occasionally touching on slight shoegaze elements to deliver a coherently attractive voyage that tends to linger in its perpetual gloom.
There are signs this side project could become the main project for everyone involved. There’s some beautiful string parts, synth that rolls off sullenly into a distant horizon, and a pretty mean glockenspiel on “For You Always,” but the vocals ruin it. They don’t fit at all. It makes the album hard to swallow in the end, like an amazing deep dish pizza covered in green onions.
If you like Rachel Goswell of Slowdive, and would like to hear her vocals complimented by heavier, more post-rock / indie-rock instrumentals? Then this is for you.
A supergroup, in my opinion, rarely lives up to expectations. Somehow, the parts are greater than the whole when it comes to supergroup formations--sorry Aristotle. That isn't to say there are no fantastical moments in "Minor Victories". For instance, the strings in "Breaking My Light" lend a grandiose sound to the song making it worthy of an epic finale (although it's the third track). However, the album only has fleeting moments where everything comes together elegantly; ... read more
1 | Give Up the Ghost 3:41 | |
2 | A Hundred Ropes 3:55 | |
3 | Breaking My Light 6:25 | |
4 | Scattered Ashes (Song for Richard) 4:17 | |
5 | Folk Arp 6:42 | |
6 | Cogs 3:19 | |
7 | For You Always 3:50 | |
8 | Out to Sea 4:09 | |
9 | The Thief 7:26 | |
10 | Higher Hopes 6:20 |
#30 | / | Rough Trade |
#38 | / | No Ripcord |
#41 | / | Louder Than War |
#46 | / | Under the Radar |
#83 | / | Fopp |
#88 | / | Crack Magazine |