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CRITIC REVIEWS
95
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
‘Peasant’ is a potent and mournfully beautiful meditation on humankind’s inability to fix itself.
90
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
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.
88
‘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
Abstruse but weirdly accessible, recherche but pertinent, Peasant is quite an achievement.
80
His only limitation is the world he lives in. Here, he begins to transcend it.
80
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
Great
Richard Dawson's breakout record "Peasant" is eye-opening, innovative, and refreshing in an age of mediocre folk and rock music. With a medieval overtone, it revolves around dark vignettes of our time, synced up with that of the days of yore. The instrumentation is fulfilling and lovely, while Dawson's vocals are just enough raw and emotional as detailed and eloquent.
Color: Green
FAV TRACKS: Ogre, Scientist, Weaver, Soldier, Beggar
LEAST FAV: Hob, Shapeshifter
Richard Dawson's breakout record "Peasant" is eye-opening, innovative, and refreshing in an age of mediocre folk and rock music. With a medieval overtone, it revolves around dark vignettes of our time, synced up with that of the days of yore. The instrumentation is fulfilling and lovely, while Dawson's vocals are just enough raw and emotional as detailed and eloquent.
Color: Green
FAV TRACKS: Ogre, Scientist, Weaver, Soldier, Beggar
LEAST FAV: Hob, Shapeshifter
POWERHOUSE
[SJO Counter: 20]
I thought at this point I'd be sick of this folk bullshit, but this one just tickles me in the balls and keeps me in my seat wanting to listen all the way to the end. Really chilled.
[SJO Counter: 20]
I thought at this point I'd be sick of this folk bullshit, but this one just tickles me in the balls and keeps me in my seat wanting to listen all the way to the end. Really chilled.
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Year End Lists
| #1 | / | The Quietus |
| #2 | / | The Wire |
| #3 | / | Loud and Quiet |
| #3 | / | Spectrum Culture |
| #5 | / | Fopp |
| #6 | / | Uncut |
| #9 | / | Crack Magazine |
| #10 | / | Gigwise |
| #10 | / | Norman Records |
| #10 | / | The Guardian |
More Lists
Decade Lists
| #66 | / | Crack Magazine (2010s) |
MISC LISTS
| #8 | / | Exclaim! (Folk & Country) |
| #32 | / | Drift Records |
Track List
- Herald
- Ogre
- Soldier
- Weaver
- Prostitute
- Shapeshifter
- Scientist
- Hob
- Beggar
- No-One
- Masseuse
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11mo
I’m pretty sure there is some conjuring of dark spirits going on towards the end of Masseuse.
Added on: May 24, 2017