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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Alpinisms
by School of Seven Bells
The debut album for the band led by ex-Secret Machines member Benjamin Curtis.
| LABEL: |
Ghostly International |
| RELEASE DATE: |
28 October 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Pop |
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
All Music Guide
What pushes these songs past mere worship involves cunning collisions of robust rhythm, caressing noise, and heavenly melody, with each element equally crucial. Good shoegaze/dream-pop bands mastered one of them; the most exceptional of the heap, like this group, had all three down.
90
Urb
In Alpinisms, School of Seven Bells have themselves one of the year’s most intoxicating debuts.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
Alpinisms is an undoubtedly singular album, setting the bar quite high for this burgeoning trio.
80
Pitchfork
Throughout Alpinisms, the group finds a perfect middle ground between the indie realms of tribal and choral, layering electronic flourishes without letting them overwhelm the arrangements.
80
The Guardian
This is a lesson in tender restraint you won't want to miss.
79
Lost At Sea
Spacey, ambient, and vaguely tribal, Alpinisms creates a landscape to get lost in. Despite their differing musical backgrounds, the band has a cohesive sound.
70
Rolling Stone
The effect is warm goth--New Order with more eros.
70
Under The Radar
Alpinism is not a perfect record by any means, but it is a confident step in the right direction. [Year End 2008]
70
PopMatters
Alpinisms could have used a few more of those moments, when the sounds overtake each other and induce a sense of blissful surrender.
70
Village Voice
School of Seven Bells, is a far more meditative and electronic affair dominated by former On!Air!Library! entrancers Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, who sing in mesmerizing siren-song unison, even if they sound like a grade-A hookah-bar act at times.
70
Spin
Alpinisms' sweeping, ethereal pop owes a stylistic debt to My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins, but the debut album by former Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis' new project reveals a range of influences and a sophisticated approach to arrangement that sets the trio well apart from less imaginative latter-day shoegazers.
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
While impeccably arranged and charmingly sung, much of the album blurs together into a haze of boilerplate ambience with exotic titles.
60
Slant Magazine
The dual harmonies and inherently hypnotic cadences render music that is largely exhilarating occasionally monotonous.
60
Prefix Magazine
Like the band members themselves, Alpinisms is full of promise and obvious talent but would benefit from a more clearly defined direction.
60
Mojo
Its influences and allusions diverse, but fruitful. [Dec 2008, p.110]
60
PopMatters
SVIIB make good on the promise of their early seven-inches and EPs with this debut full-length for Ghostly International.
60
Q Magazine
Herren's wall-of-noise productions were clearly a big influence, alongside shoegazing indie bands and Joy Division, though nothing that follows quite measures up to spectacular opening lamundernodisguise, somehow reminiscent of both MGMT and gothic folk troupe Espers. [Dec 2008, p.133]
59
cokemachineglow
The ethno-tinted dreampop of School of Seven Bells left me stymied and listless and, most crucially for a critic, at a loss for words.
40
Uncut
The dreary emotional content and the sub-MBV soundscapes set out to gaze enigmatically at their shoes. Sadly, they don't get past the navel. [dec 2008, p.115]
25
The Phoenix
With a clearer eye to the cultures whose stereotypes they’re furthering, the Bells could have made a provocative connection between the European forms they’re comfortable with and any number of traditional Middle Eastern and Indian instruments and forms they’re interested in but not serious about.
The average user rating for this album is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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