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9.0
125677
9.0 |
Gigwise
One of 2021’s most unexpected delights
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8.5
125704
8.5 |
Under The Radar
Though Gillespie and Beth both break from their established styles on Utopian Ashes, they strike on something truly special in the process — a bountiful collaborative relationship and a resulting record of powerful drama and sweeping instrumental beauty
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8.0
125696
8.0 |
All Music
By pushing each other out of their comfort zones, Beth and Gillespie make Utopian Ashes an unabashedly theatrical - and consistently entertaining - look at falling out of love
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8.0
125725
8.0 |
Clash
Aiming to pin down essential emotions in a personal way, ‘Utopian Ashes’ succeeds beyond their imaginations – a crisp, entrancing song cycle, it’s unaffected feel helps it linger long in the memory
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8.0
125736
8.0 |
DIY
A set which takes its cues from the laws of straight-up rock, country and a pinch of Motown
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8.0
125702
8.0 |
musicOMH
Not about the war, but its aftermath; not break-up album, more broken-up album. Here lies a stately triumph
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8.0
125683
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
The songs cut deeply and coherently into adult relationships as they simmer and immolate
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8.0
125668
8.0 |
The Irish Times
Utopian Ashes is far from a perfect album, but it is a defiantly good one
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8.0
125669
8.0 |
Uncut
The most emotionally mature and fully realised work Gillespie has delivered in years, laying grainy, soulful, impassioned vocals over sumptuously old-school chansons clothed in vintage orchestral country-rock arrangements. Print edition only
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8.0
125670
8.0 |
Mojo
It's not easy listening, but profoundly engaging and redemptive. Print edition only
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8.0
125671
8.0 |
The Observer
The Primal Scream frontman trades brashness for contemplation in this rewarding collaboration with the former Savages singer
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8.0
125672
8.0 |
American Songwriter
Whether this is the beginning of an extended musical partnership or just a one-off, it’s a powerful and rewarding album. That’s especially the case for those who have been through the more challenging parts of the broken relationship mill
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8.0
125673
8.0 |
NME
Rock'n'rollers singing heartbroken country duets? It sounds dystopian on paper – but this thoughtful collaboration both surprises and delivers
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7.3
125910
7.3 |
Pitchfork
Feigning coupledom, the two singers offer a fictionalized divorce album modeled after the tear-jerking country, soul, and pop duets of yesteryear. They flirt with camp without ever succumbing to it
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7.0
125678
7.0 |
Northern Transmissions
They might be singing about breaking up, but hopefully, there’s more to come from their creative partnership
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6.0
125676
6.0 |
Evening Standard
Although they eschew familiar tropes, both artists have made more gripping work than this before
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6.0
125700
6.0 |
The FT
Primal Scream’s singer and his Savages counterpart join for a side project solidly cast in the mould of bygone duet albums
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6.0
125712
6.0 |
Rolling Stone
With moments of beauty and a few songs that make you want to scream primally, the collaboration never rises to either artist’s full potential
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5.4
125806
5.4 |
Spectrum Culture
Dig deep and you'll find an album that strives to be something greater than a one-off collaboration of two seemingly incompatible artists
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4.0
125687
4.0 |
Crack
Too self-involved, stuck inside its own four walls, to have anything to say outside of them
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