Mark Abraham
The King of Limbs isn’t a bad album, and it doesn’t sound tossed off, half-cocked, unimaginative, directionless, antiquated, or derivative, but it doesn’t really land, either.
14y
In a technical sense it sounds, like everything Murphy produces, pristine.
14y
There’s some really wicked ideas buried in the mud here, but between some humdrum instrumental passages and a lot of nu-metal lite-style singing and the general mess of sonics trying to pull them out is like forcing yourself to listen to Joe Satriani for the cool parts.
11y
I’d reject the idea that this album is laid-back in favor of saying it’s too light-hearted.
11y
There's something downright overwhelming about this disc, whether it's the unremitting playfulness or the way the band pulls together beauty and energy from the oddest of sounds or the way over top they sometimes launch into abstract political commentary.
11y
Whether you like it more or less than their debut, this album means that in 2008 this band lives on despite their hype and despite the way they’ve been constructed in indie fandom.
11y
Dragging a Dead deer Up a Hill may display some of the growing pains she’s working out in attempting to find a sound between the early ambient-style work she made her name on and more poppish fare.
11y
The Jicks do an incredible job of coming into their own as a band, channeling Malkmus’s sarcasm and foolery in a less controlled setting brilliantly; they just can’t, because of the immediacy of the album, tease out the full quirkiness.
11y
There is nothing here but a band very awkwardly trying to have a good time, and that’s the kind of party you always leave early.
11y
Overpowered is both impressive and incredibly fun, but fun in a way that Ruby Blue wasn't: you don't have to think here. Which, I mean, it's not that one is better than the other; they're just differently awesome.
11y
I don’t think it’s too harsh to suggest that each Iron & Wine album is not a step forward so much as a more sophisticated look at the same paces.
14y
Let’s Stay Friends is the most ambitious abuse of genre the band’s yet laid, like somehow when the indie revolution got gerrymandered Les Savy Fav came out on top.
11y
As a Caribou album, this is mediocre. Not bad, but it's not much of a Caribou album anyway.
11y
Point being, Walls is a pretty, pretty album from a technical standpoint; I'm just not sure you're going to find anything here that still moves you once the record ends.
11y
This doesn’t seem so much a pop internalization of Deerhoof’s unique talent as it is a kind of album-costume where they adorn the talents of other bands.
11y
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