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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Take Me To The Sea
by Jaguar Love
The debut album for the indie-rock band that features ex-members of the Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves.
| LABEL: |
Matador |
| RELEASE DATE: |
19 August 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Indie |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
Alternative Press
It's the sound of three musicians playing to their strengths while challenging their songwriting style, resulting in a cohesive listen that holds your attention to the end. [Sep 2008, p.156]
90
Hot Press
If you take a chance on just one record then make sure it’s Take Me To The Sea as it’s possibly the underground triumph of the year.
90
Drowned In Sound
Longing for The Blood Brothers (or even, of course, Pretty Girls Make Graves) is as futile as rating a current girlfriend against an ex: while both may have inspired your love, all that truly matters is the here and now. And Jaguar Love are very much of today. There is no turning back.
90
musicOMH.com
Write off Jaguar Love at your peril; this is one of the best albums of the year so far.
80
All Music Guide
The musicianship is mature--a jangly, shifting cornucopia of guitar, bass, organs, and drums--but it is practically ignorable behind the caterwauling wail of Johnny Whitney, which takes precedence over all.
80
Hartford Courant
For as combustible as they are, the songs are catchy and conducive to repeated listening.
80
NOW Magazine
Wrapped up in a tidy 10 songs is an album full of kinetic exuberance, rawness and sweat that retains just enough of a pop sensibility to keep things both memorable and erratic.
80
Delusions of Adequacy
If you aren't at least a little cozy to the sound commonly produced by Whitney and company, you certainly won't be any more into Jaguar Love. Well, that may not be totally accurate, as I can see this being some of most accessible stuff spawned by any Blood Brothers alumni.
75
cokemachineglow
A few duds aside, the album succeeds as an ecstasy pop update on the Blood Brothers’ delirious chaos and nobody who purports to miss that band should ignore it.
70
New Musical Express
They’re still working out the kinks, though, so a few tracks fail to match their ambition.
70
Spin
Johnny Whitney has made an art of singing like a deliriously deaf 12-year-old, but the debut of his new trio with Blood Brothers bandmate/guitarist Cody Votolato and ex–Pretty Girls Make Graves guitarist Jay Clark (now on drums) plays like a preteen daydream.
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
His voice is annoying the way a fuzz guitar is overdriven: That's its point. Getting past it isn't always easy, but it can be rewarding as Whitney proved with his prior band, Seattle's Blood Brothers, and demonstrates intermittently at the head of Jaguar Love.
60
Uncut
Johnny Whitney's helium-pumped, Brian Molko-meets-Freddie Mercury squeal is very much an acquired taste--perhaps for some it will prove insufficuently offset by his bandmates' post-punk adventurism. [Sep 2008, p.92]
60
Prefix Magazine
Take Me to the Sea [is] a cross between sloppy prog-rock and emo that ends up being less than a sum of its parts.
60
Tiny Mix Tapes
Jaguar Love inject a vicious vitality into their neon-hued rock, and the idea of a dance punk with real fury behind the party is appealing. But in order to avoid being merely irritating or simply diverting, Jaguar Love could benefit from fully unhinging, with an increase in wrath.
40
Sputnikmusic
It’s not bad in the sense its unredeemable, just in the sense that it fails to do what it wants to really, really hard.
40
Mojo
He can make a sweet music, as on the soulful warble of 'Georgia,' but on most of the other occasions when Votolato's choppy riffs and off-beam melodies threaten to seduce you, Whitney's caterwaul butts in again. [Sep 2008, p.110]
40
The Guardian
Two minutes in, that opening song plummets into a mire of self-indulgence - and that's where the rest of the album stays.
36
Filter
This is an incredibly abrasive album.... There's screaming on this album, lots of it...nay, way too much. [Summer 2008, p.102]
The average user rating for this album is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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