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Critic Reviews
90
A lyrical and musical knockout, spearheaded by the miraculous 'Fools,' Visiter could be one of the best albums of the year.
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3y
85
Magnetic Fields-like numbers "Winter" and "Undeclared" seem vanilla by comparison to some, but by making room for both, Visiter ends up being one of the most welcoming (and welcome) records of 2008 so far.
15y
83
This is cerebral, twisted folk that’s as wistful as it is strident.
10y
83
On Visiter, San Francisco's The Dodos marry accessible folk-pop melodies with mechanical polyrhythms inspired by West African Ewe drumming. While the result would never be described as danceable—it's a little too stiff-wristed to qualify as funky—Visiter zips along with a driving, forward-moving velocity that obliterates most traces of that pesky, Caucasian-y feyness.
11y
80
The Dodos are too uptight to freak-out totally and the clash between slacker lyricism and unpredictable acoustic outbursts lends an intriguingly split personality.
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3y
80
With Visiter, the Dodos have made one of the year's best albums, one that mixes folk traditions with impressive sonics and texture. It only hints at what they may be capable of.
10mo
80
Infectious, propulsive, unselfconscious, The Dodos are good enough to keep such company as Brian Eno or David Byrne.
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3y
80
Visiter suggesting both a rhythm-centric Shins and a more hard-bitten Feelies.
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3y
80
At 59 minutes, it feels long, but that's the price you pay for experiments such as The Season and charming oddities such as God?, a bit of laid-back Americana employing sleigh bells. It's easy to see why they were a bit of a sensation at SXSW.
10y
80
Speaking of nervous systems, if Visiter doesn't make you tap, nod, shake, or just plain move, then you don't have one.
11y
80
This is one of the few releases of 2008 that shook me out of my complacency and forced me to accept it on its own terms.
13y
80
The seven minute thriller 'Joe's Waltz' demonstrates their flair for balancing craftmanship and raw emotion.
11y
80
Though it’s not entirely without precedent, there’s still more than enough innovation here to mark ‘Visiter’ out as one of the summer’s must-have releases.
11y
80
Visiter's experimental pop is so joyous and liberated-sounding that it's difficult not to get swept along in its wake.
11y
80
This is an album that definitely deserves your interest, one of the best that New Weird America has thrown across the Atlantic in a long, long time.
15y
80
Visiter has a hidden treasure aspect implying future generations may be more willing to appreciate this album.
15y
76
Long and Kroeber deserve sizable praise for avoiding the pitfalls of such practices, even with some inevitable shortcomings that are to be expected from a relatively young band with big aspirations.
11y
73
Many acoustic acts at the moment seem tired and generic whereas the Dodos seem to have managed to take Lo-Fi by it’s ambient little horns and transform it into something far more interesting with a great deal more substance.
10mo
60
While Visiter never quite reaches full cohesion, the oddball tracks presented, such as It’s That Time Again, a bar closing anthem with sad bastard horns blaring, and Paint the Rust, which elicits a cagey blues sound, show a respectable diversity of style.
12y
60
One is left feeling that the Dodos are selling themselves short, hanging onto prettyboy singer-songwriterdom when they should be letting their freak flag fly.
15y
60
Sometimes abruptly but always skilfully, these rhythms drag and push the record to its limit on the existential moaning of the album’s closer, God?
3y
#1 of rereviews (redoing past albums' reviews from way back when).
so i know most of you guys dont know this band or this album but please do understand that this album means a lot to me so i hope you go an try this out before or after reading this. even if you don't read this, i would still heavily recommend this to all of you. now onto the review.
before finding out this review site, i was on pitchfork scouting out reviews and finding albums i would like. i had no idea how to ... read more
My 200th review!!! 🎉🥳
On this album, the Dodos took everything I liked from their first album and revved it up. The chords are more dissonant, the lyrics are more personal, the performances are immaculate, the drums are thumpy and distant, the instrumentation is beautiful, the production is gorgeous.
I could go on but I think you get the point. I love this thing. Only reason it's not a 10 in my eyes is the length. It could have been more concise imo, but that might change at a later date
I used to play this on a portable CD player during road trips. This is the kind of folk I get behind.
Man I don't know. There's something about these instrumentals that doesn't feel produced at all. Throughout this entire hour long record (which proved to be much too long) the instruments just had such a weird and disjointed feeling to them, like they were actively clashing with my experience of the album. The singing is pretty good though. As much as I wanted to like some of this, I just don't think there was anything here of note to me
A really great and charming indie folk record, being a bit of a hidden gem! The replayability is very high as well.
Peak indie rock. this is somewhere between csh tier and like.. i was reminded of the oh hellos with their spirit piercing through the veil of loneliness, AAHH !!! ADVENTURE!! MIXING IS INSANE pls check this out if you like noise rock twangy guitars that are in ur ears, most mainstream accessible comparison is the Bodysnatchers effect in In Rainbows radiohead but like. Somehow maybe even crazier and more energy. So impactful. <3
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Track List
| 1 | Walking 2:09 | 91 |
| 2 | Red and Purple 4:40 | 89 |
| 3 | Eyelids 0:59 | 73 |
| 4 | Fools 4:43 | 88 |
| 5 | Joe's Waltz 7:22 | 85 |
| 6 | Winter 3:44 | 83 |
| 7 | It's That Time Again 1:29 | 75 |
| 8 | Paint the Rust 6:15 | 77 |
| 9 | Park Song 2:49 | 79 |
| 10 | Jodi 6:14 | 84 |
| 11 | Ashley 4:04 | 79 |
| 12 | The Season 6:15 | 84 |
| 13 | Undeclared 1:53 | 72 |
| 14 | God? 6:51 | 85 |
Total Length: 59 minutes
