Albums to watch

Nepenthe

Julianna Barwick

Nepenthe

Second album from the Louisiana-born, Brooklyn-based singer features layered vocals and synths recorded in Iceland with Alex Somers (Jónsi & Alex)

ADM rating[?]

8.0

Label
Dead Oceans
UK Release date
12/08/2013
US Release date
20/08/2013
  1. 9.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    This is the exquisite album we were promised, and perhaps an important one
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  2. 9.0 |   musicOMH

    While it may be a tremendously personal album for Barwick, you can get lost in Nepenthe for not only its sheer beauty, but for its ability to evoke visual cues and tell stories with its music
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  3. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Nepenthe is a very special album, one which doesn’t sound like anything else around but which also sounds like music you have unwittingly known your whole life
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  4. 9.0 |   Entertainment.ie

    Nepenthe is magic and loss, wonder and sorrow and it continues to enchant long after the final notes have died away
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  5. 9.0 |   All Music

    While comparisons to the icy beauty of Sigur Rós, the ethereal curiosity of Cocteau Twins, and any number of new age reference points are inevitable and warranted, Nepenthe shows a much deeper side to Barwick's art
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  6. 9.0 |   The Quietus

    Powerfully, uniquely transcendent: something vast and expansive, intimate and affecting all at once
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  7. 8.5 |   Beats Per Minute

    It’s just as prodigious and marvellous as anything else Barwick has put out before
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  8. 8.5 |   Pitchfork

    A noticeable expansion in scope that still honors the sensibility that made her early records so unique
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  9. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    You experience Nepenthe in its own world
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  10. 8.0 |   Blurt

    The album is gorgeous, almost an abstraction of what musical loveliness could be
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  11. 8.0 |   DIY

    Barwick continually proves that truism that art isn't about elements but what you make of them - and this latest album is simply sublime
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  12. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Even when shaded with melancholy this is an album of joyously abstracted rapture. Print edition only

  13. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    It’s all heady, soothing and hugely alluring
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  14. 8.0 |   The Arts Desk

    There are lyrics, of a sort, here and there; but the combination of dense, harmonic layers and Barwick’s airy expressiveness spin them into something that you experience rather than hear
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  15. 8.0 |   Time Out

    A record to lose yourself in over and over again
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  16. 8.0 |   No Ripcord

    Nepenthe takes her sound its next logical step forward by filling out her music with a wider range of acoustic instruments that underpin the sonority of her vocals
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  17. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    These sounds are so enchanting, so intricately observed
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  18. 8.0 |   Clash

    A special album from a special artist
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  19. 8.0 |   The 405

    After a while you get lost in Nepenthe and forget that this is mostly voices, it manages to transcend its constituent parts and make a beautiful noise from start to finish
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  20. 7.2 |   Bowlegs

    Nepenthe is a lush suite that stirs deep emotions effortlessly, a balm that will soothe a lot of ears, connecting despite its studied impersonality
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  21. 7.0 |   NME

    Her songs sound even more spaced out and unreal than ever
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  22. 7.0 |   Under The Radar

    Depending on your tastes, Nepenthe either marks Barwick's progression to a higher, more emotionally powerful and resonant place, or she's managed the musical equivalent of Instagramming her album
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  23. 7.0 |   Fact

    Nepenthe is more ambitious than its predecessors, more varied in style and execution and sonically richer
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  24. 6.0 |   Uncut

    Beautiful loops of her voice layered into candyfloss clouds. Print edition only


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Julianna Barwick: Nepenthe

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