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10.0
4362
10.0 |
The Sunday Times
There’s a feature-length film to go with the CD, but this album is visual enough. It is also a masterpiece.
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9.0
4371
9.0 |
NME
The band have changed their tune to that of a sunny swoon, filled with regret, pain, poignant optimism and fewer zany instruments… An immense album
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8.0
4372
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
I find it difficult to fault this album. Granted, this album does have the occasional essence of Snow Patrol about its aura but I’ve listened repeatedly since it plopped onto my mat and I’m yet to tire of it
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8.0
4366
8.0 |
The Times
Any spot-the- poignancy game playing is quickly erased by the sheer universal grandeur of this record.
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8.0
4369
8.0 |
The Observer
Once a knock-about indie act from central casting, they're now full bodied and sophisticated, skilled with massed choirs, pedal steel, church bells and anything that comes to hand
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8.0
4356
8.0 |
Observer Music Monthly
This is a beautiful album. Moving rather than maudlin, uplifting rather than depressing. Impressionistic symphonic-pop maestro Sufjan Stevens, back this autumn with a new album, had better watch his back. Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, cooking up his own long-gestating, musical-film project, has been served notice
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8.0
4357
8.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
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8.0
4358
8.0 |
Q
Print edition only
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8.0
4359
8.0 |
Clash
Impressive, thoughtful and frequently beautiful, The First Days of Spring is one of those records that asks for the hard work of the listener but rewards ten times over
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8.0
4360
8.0 |
The List
Elevates Noah and the Whale from punctuation-denigrating indie poppers to philharmonic alt.rockers with a winning line in lyrical solace.
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7.0
6495
7.0 |
Blurt
They made an album that outshines their first in spades. Show the boys some love
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6.0
4368
6.0 |
The Scotsman
They channel the hangdog Americana of Will Oldham and Lambchop, with singer Charlie Fink's delivery so low-key it is more mutter than vocal; elsewhere, they take a leaf out of Elbow's knowingly uplifting book on the single Blue Skies.
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6.0
4363
6.0 |
The Guardian
The album falls down only on the words he sings with it. Cliches are forgivable in break-up records ... but The First Days of Spring is carpeted with them wall-to-wall.
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6.0
4364
6.0 |
The Independent
One's impatience with Fink is tempered somewhat by the band's inventive sonic strategies
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6.0
4370
6.0 |
Uncut
Closure is finally achieved on the gorgeous “My Door Is Always Open” and only an ill-advised mid-section (where it all goes a bit Godspell) spoils the mood
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5.2
5695
5.2 |
Pitchfork
As a lyricist, Fink's too reliant on indistinct yearn, and while you might relate to some of Spring's bummed-out bromide, Fink's moping seems too scopic to hit anyone very deep for very long. Sometimes you just put it in a letter
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4.0
4367
4.0 |
musicOMH
Filled to the gills with sentiments of loneliness (My Broken Heart) and defeatism (I Have Nothing), placed on top of a monochromatic batch of sluggishly-strummed coffeeshop acoustics
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4.0
4373
4.0 |
Daily Telegraph
Fink’s unlovely vocals bespeak only all-consuming misery and despair, with fleeting chinks of optimism
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4.0
4374
4.0 |
Spin
Long on droning strings and meandering melodies, Days is a major downer even by the dejected standards of indie-rock breakup albums
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4.0
4365
4.0 |
The Irish Times
The band’s folksy-fiddly sound and Fink’s chirpy West Country tones and lonesome-pine lyrics lack the necessary depth to fully convey the feeling of having your heart run through a combine-harvester,
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4.0
4361
4.0 |
musicOMH
Bring back Marling and spice up the lyrical themes, and we might be back on track. At the moment, though, it appears as though this is one twee-pop album that simply doesn't pop.
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