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8.2
10493
8.2 |
Beats Per Minute
Thirty eight minutes of bliss
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8.0
10545
8.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
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8.0
10572
8.0 |
The Sunday Times
Extraordinary songs where quiet and loud, focus and lack of focus, urgency and floatiness coexist in perfect harmony
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8.0
10265
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Abyss in B-Minor isn't elitist or an acquired taste, it's just a little guarded. Put your trust in Serena Maneesh and they will reward you by making you feel powerful - nearly omnipotent - yet simultaneously sedate
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8.0
10266
8.0 |
Daily Telegraph
Inspired heavily by the wayward squall of My Bloody Valentine mixed with Beach Boys melodies
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8.0
10355
8.0 |
Uncut
Print edition only
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8.0
10948
8.0 |
Blurt
The ability to extract a variety of feels, sounds and textures out of a consistent sonic palette marks a great band, and Serena-Maneesh displays that tattoo with grace and beauty
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8.0
11008
8.0 |
The Quietus
If we must have a shoegazing revival, let it sound like this - picking up where the best of those bands left off, realising the possibilities of melody, imagination and loud guitars allied to digital technology's distorting potential
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7.0
12120
7.0 |
Rave Magazine
Not even forty minutes long, No 2 can be pretty heavy going at times, but its intricate vocal hooks are certainly worth savouring
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7.0
10394
7.0 |
NME
There are lighter moments, like the urgent rock wig-out of ‘Blow Yr Brains In The Mourning Rain’. What?! These are dark times, you know…
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7.0
10303
7.0 |
The Digital Fix
Serena-Maneesh have the essential sparks of wit and originality which lift Abyss above the inhabitants of the humdrum, soul sapping conveyor belt of indie nostalgia
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6.4
10418
6.4 |
Pitchfork
It's easy to admire the roiling conviction that makes the album go, but it's a lot harder to love the actual songs that that conviction yields
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6.0
10476
6.0 |
Bowlegs
Over a long gestation (nearly four years since their debut), the album's over-produced re-appropriation of indie rock's past has been hobbled by too much reverence
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6.0
10757
6.0 |
Eye Weekly
At its best, No. 2 presents a new vision of 21st-century psychedelia, encouraging altered mental states not through meditative ritual, but information overload
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6.0
10417
6.0 |
No Ripcord
Props to them for sounding like everyone else and no one else at the same time. That was probably the intent
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6.0
10359
6.0 |
Q
Print edition only
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5.0
10465
5.0 |
musicOMH
There are standout moments of beauty in the sound they make - usually when pausing to gaze upon the full sun - but these reveries are the exception rather than the rule
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4.0
10434
4.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
There's nothing rock 'n' roll or magic here, just an empty chamber filled with half-formed ideas
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4.0
10325
4.0 |
The Fly
With a focus, their meandering prog rock could sound like a cross between Primal Scream and Avalanches. Instead, it’s us left in the dark
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3.0
12135
3.0 |
PopMatters
Honestly, your money and time would be better spent buying a second copy of Loveless than enduring this unendurable attempt at sonic collage
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