| | Full Review | Ratings (350) |
Give your Rating |
| 1.0 awful | Jade | June 4th 17 |
The only thing keeping Alt-J alive is Newman's voice and some crisp production, and the production isn't interesting at all except on Snare, which has the most pointless coda of all time. Almost every song on here takes decent hooks/riffs and drudges them on for too long with no actual development (crescendo + adding one stem that fills out the sound but doesn't complicate the track musically doesn't count). Then you have the mess of a closer which juxtaposes a really beautiful melodic refrain with spacey, dark dissonant ambiance with seemingly no connection between the two sections. It's like they wrote the refrain and were too afraid or lazy to stretch that idea to a complete track. The compositional laziness only gets more apparent with every listen. There's not an original idea here, and as for old ideas, there are too few to rationalize the runtime by any measure. The blues-rock on Snare though is pretty interesting if amateurish.
3 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.8 excellent | Benjamin Kuettel EMERITUS | June 1st 17 |
Alt-J mature and expand their songwriting for rewarding results.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.5 average | tef | November 13th 17 |
Wow, wow, this album leads the pack of mediocre albums by big name artists in 2017. This album is seriously boring. Whole songs seem to pass without me noticing there's even music playing (Adeline, Last Year, first half of Pleader). Then there's that horrid cover verion that also only starts after seemingly minutes of me checking if the stereo is on. rThe other half of the album consists of one great song (In Cold Blood) and two ok songs (3WW and Deadcrush). rWow again, that these guys have the balls to release this.... Perfect example of one hit wonders that we're prematurely (in this case almost literally) rocketed into stardom, by magazines like NME, before they released their first proper album. rMy guess is this band will fall apart later this year or somewhere in 2018.r
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 1.5 very poor | KingOzma | June 12th 17 |
The first track on this thing is brilliant but the quality drop as soon as the second track started was so sudden and jarring it left me dizzy. No idea what everyone else sees in this. Putting lots of random noises in your songs doesn't make them interesting, it's makes them boring with lots of random noises. And fucking hell those vocals. Poor ass album
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.5 average | dihstyle69 | June 7th 17 |
i was really excited about this album considering how good the singles were. sadly, the project is only 39 minutes long and the other tracks are really not that good, especially the cover which is horrendous. really disappointed with this, what the hell happened here? 2.5+
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 1.5 very poor | notkanyewest | June 5th 17 |
Alt-J are my least favorite indie band working today. Also the frontman does the "put it in my butt" cadence from that "how to write an alt j song" youtube video on "in cold blood".
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 2.5 average | JWT155 | June 5th 17 |
Unabashed quirkiness gone awry.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.0 good | terriblekonrad | February 23rd 22 |
Their weirdest stuff to date, even The Dream (the newest) is more coherent and consist their
landmark sounds. After release of Relaxer I was amazed by perfect singles (3WW, In Cold Blood,
Deadcrush), but that's it, the rest is just bloated mess. Now I see this. This one is called
Relaxer and I'm not even relaxed after, more pissed.
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| 2.5 average | the strange autumnal pleasure of 5-ing a 3.5 | June 17th 17 |
Some fantastic ideas taking place in the foreground on this thing. Sadly, these guys seem to lack the compositional know-how to flesh out their songs. When the other layers of instrumentation (bass, percussion etc) are so lazily and amateurishly stacked atop one another, with very little interplay between them, the overall effect is greatly diminished. They have the icing down to an art form, but the cake beneath is half-baked. These guys were clearly never a bona fide band, jamming for hours on end in a shitty room but building ideas of musical cooperation and interplay in the process. As a result, a sense of the musically inept plagues even their prettiest songs. Peek beyond that captivating melody or soaring chorus, and you'll find a group of guys desperately adding layers of stems in an attempt to fill out the rest of the song. Fleetingly beautiful, but crumbles under closer inspection.
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| 0.0 | kukimonge | June 17th 17 |
Si algo se puede decir de Alt-J, es que tienen un sonido propio súper consolidado, y ese liricismo creativo, plagado de atmósferas intrigantes, emoción, pasión e interés por crear indie rock que se salga del montón ha sido parte de su idiosincrasia desde An Awesome Wave,
disco que definió esa esfera sonora característica del grupo y que además los catapultó hasta la fama.
En RELAXER, Alt-J continúa por la misma línea, conservando esa estética y ejecución característica de sus dos lanzamientos pasados, aunque volviéndose un poco más sutil que en This Is All Yours, una continuación interesante de su primer disco, que puede sentirse a veces demasiado calmado o poco "punchy" para algunos de sus fans. En general, RELAXER es un disco atractivo por su sonido un tanto fuera de lo tradicional al hablar de Alt-J, con atmósferas sumamente espaciosas y canciones de intensidad variada a lo largo de sus 39 minutos de duración, y que además sacrifica algunos elementos musicales en favor de otros.
El disco empieza con "3WW", de forma calmada y sutil, y conforme la canción avanza transporta al escucha en un viaje sonoro y lírico inmediatamente interesante, con ese ingenio lírico y temático tan propio de la banda y esa explosión de sonido en los coros. Esta es la perfecta introducción a un álbum que a fin de cuentas no hila bien esa intención original de mezclar lo sutil y lo tradicional, hablando por ejemplo de folktronica e indie rock; atmósferas de ambiente con pasajes rockeados o meramente pop.
Existen momentos que toman esta tranquilidad musical y la establecen de forma increíble, como en "House of the Rising Sun", que es la apropiación de una canción clásica para interpretarla en la voz de Alt-J, un experimento que pudo haber salido terriblemente mal, pero al final juega a favor de la banda. No es simplemente un cover, sino que se vuelve una canción propia y diferente, que explora otras texturas sonoras y le apuesta al cambio en la construcción original para volverse una pieza realmente interesante. Es imposible obviar que junto a esta, dos canciones de tono parecido en el álbum tienen una duración parecida (alrededor de 5 minutos), pero a diferencia de esta pieza, "Last Year" y "Pleader" se sienten cansadas e innecesariamente largas, y haciendo que un disco de 39 minutos se sienta de una hora, con poca sustancia y variedad en las canciones.
En "Pleader" está esa introducción y pasajes que recuerdan a Andrew Bird, acompañados de órganos de iglesia, cuerdas y versos dispersados sin ningún objetivo en particular. Es una canción que se siente incoherente a pesar de las múltiples secciones que se escuchan bien ejecutadas e interesantes; si bien la experimentación con recursos musicales previamente utilizados está presente a lo largo de toda la pieza, en conjunto esos pasajes musicales suenan mal estructurados y divagantes, dejándolo a uno con ganas de canciones más coherentes y cortas, como en el caso de la magnífica "Adeline".
El sonido más característico de la banda resalta en canciones como "3WW" e "In Cold Blood", canciones ingeniosas, graciosas e interesantes musicalmente, que recalcan la capacidad que tiene Alt-J para crear piezas geniales en una luz más alegre o "pop". Además, "Deadcrush" representa una adición interesante al tracklist, con una instrumentación poco característica pero que conserva esa intención temática o narrativa de discos pasados.
En general, RELAXER es un lanzamiento poco memorable al compararlo con sus otros lanzamientos, que además se siente incoherente, poco trabajado e innecesariamente sutil o extendido en duración en algunas canciones. No es un álbum malo, pero deja mucho que desear en cuanto a la estructuración del tracklist, la escogencia de canciones y la variación en la intensidad entre canciones. Se siente como un EP de excesiva duración, con piezas que podrían haber sido recortadas del producto final y un desarrollo musical a veces inútilmente divagante. Aún así, Alt-J conserva su capacidad para escribir canciones divertidas y memorables en cortes como "3WW", "In Cold Blood", "Adeline" o "Deadcrush". Ojalá en el futuro Alt-J nos sorprenda con un disco más coherente pero igualmente interesante.
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| 3.0 good | I Am Saruman, The Multicoloured | June 7th 17 |
This is okay. Unlike their debut and similarly to their somophore effort, it's consistently mellow, but nothing really stands out.
Bump |
| 3.5 great | JesusCage | June 3rd 17 |
It's another great album. If it wasn't for a misstep called 'Hit me with your Snare' (which isn't rbad 'per se' but feels too out of place in the album) it could reach slightly higher ratings. Two rof my favorite tracks of the year on this: 3ww and adeline; you should check them out even if ryou aren't too keen on alt-j, but i'm not telling what to do.r(3.9)
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| 2.5 average | doofy | January 8th 24 |
| 2.5 average | Oatus | May 18th 22 |
| 2.0 poor | luetin | April 26th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | Watch | December 30th 21 |
| 2.5 average | Oobaloo | December 3rd 21 |
| 1.0 awful | aroge | November 1st 21 |
| 3.0 good | BoerK | October 18th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Zakusz | July 14th 21 |
| 2.5 average | Luna | April 2nd 21 |
| 3.0 good | naej | March 6th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Skye09 | September 27th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | Dettlaff | September 21st 20 |
| 4.5 superb | Sowing STAFF | May 11th 20 |
| 2.0 poor | Prole | April 24th 20 |
| 3.5 great | Turns13 | November 12th 19 |
| 2.5 average | CPCP | November 6th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Zakkusz | October 26th 19 |
| 3.5 great | FakeOne | September 17th 19 |
| 2.5 average | shazzyy | August 26th 19 |
| 3.0 good | Mochin | August 6th 19 |
| 3.0 good | fog CONTRIBUTOR | May 21st 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | dafon24 | April 19th 19 |
| 2.5 average | kylerez | February 20th 19 |
| 3.5 great | Akifexx | September 27th 18 |
| 2.0 poor | ARTV | July 14th 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | A.R.O. STAFF | February 13th 18 |
| 2.5 average | eiramjs | February 13th 18 |
| 3.5 great | Fugue | December 17th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Rdv | December 9th 17 |
| 2.5 average | doqtor | November 12th 17 |
| 3.0 good | Crawl | October 27th 17 |
| 3.5 great | Strills | September 28th 17 |
| 3.5 great | teahead | September 28th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | mac00l | August 25th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | dess05 | July 27th 17 |
| 3.0 good | jesper STAFF | July 22nd 17 |
| 3.0 good | Skoj | July 19th 17 |
| 3.0 good | wg98 | July 19th 17 |
| 3.5 great | ryan10 | June 26th 17 |
| 3.5 great | ariich | June 23rd 17 |
| 3.5 great | bordje | June 19th 17 |
| 2.0 poor | Lalka | June 18th 17 |
| 3.0 good | anat CONTRIBUTOR | June 16th 17 |
| 3.5 great | ATTA | June 7th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | BoJean | June 6th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Adam | June 6th 17 |
| 2.0 poor | Rudy K. EMERITUS | June 6th 17 |
| 3.5 great | Nrap | June 5th 17 |
| 5.0 classic | Reeet | June 5th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Honza | June 5th 17 |
| 3.0 good | fdrc | June 5th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | xBAMx | June 4th 17 |
| 2.5 average | gilly | June 4th 17 |
| 3.0 good | bmelt CONTRIBUTOR | June 4th 17 |
| 2.5 average | IrishC | June 4th 17 |
| 2.5 average | Vajs | June 4th 17 |
| 4.0 excellent | Gnodab | June 3rd 17 |
| 2.5 average | ab1897 | June 1st 17 |
| 4.5 superb | jaspvr | May 29th 17 |
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