-
10.0
4969
10.0 |
The Sunday Times
The sparring between Hayden Thorpe’s emotionally ambivalent, Billy Mackenzie-like falsetto, Tom Fleming’s lower-register deadpan and Benny Little’s restless, filigreed fretwork is a thing of wonder in itself… one of 2009’s indisputable masterpieces
Read Review
-
9.0
4970
9.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Doesn't so much follow up their debut as announce Wild Beasts as one of our genuinely special bands, one that can compete - in terms of both musical and lyrical ingenuity as well as sheer pop nous - with any US act
Read Review
-
9.0
4971
9.0 |
The Quietus
In this flawless peach of a record, Wild Beasts pay close attention to the fundamental rules of seduction: they offer something different and new, devilishly handsome but aware of their vulnerabilities, and possessed of an enticingly empty dancing card.
Read Review
-
9.0
4972
9.0 |
NME
The counterpoint between the neurotic, lascivious thrill of Thorpe’s falsetto and bassist Tom Fleming’s impossibly rich, sonorous, northern tones is delicious. It’s like listening to Ted Hughes read poetry in the drawing room while Maria Callas has a breakdown in the kitchen
Read Review
-
9.0
4966
9.0 |
musicOMH
Makes a strong case to be named album of the year. Yet if this release has taught us anything, it is to not assume what is and isn't possible in music. Ignore speculation, and simply make time to bask in the seemingly endless supply of luxurious delights contained within this stunning achievement
Read Review
-
9.0
4959
9.0 |
Clash
It’s a massive step forward from their debut, and a record to remind all that Britain is capable of producing musical mavericks like no other nation... Affecting, audacious, captivating of fantastical flourishes, it’s an album to champion ‘til all superlatives are spent. Love it
Read Review
-
9.0
4976
9.0 |
No Ripcord
… so laden with lush densities and provocative melodies that you would be forgiven for thinking this album had taken ten years to make.
Read Review
-
8.5
4962
8.5 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Surely one of the year’s best albums by a British band, Two Dancers has a blend of invention and pop sensibility that seems to have been largely lacking on this side of the Atlantic in recent years. The revolution starts here
Read Review
-
8.4
4977
8.4 |
Pitchfork
Wild Beasts certainly aren't the first rock band to stand up society's dregs and outcasts, but few others immortalize them on such a wondrous, mythic scale. And in the grand ""This Is Our Lot""-- the sort of song everyone wants Radiohead's perpetually imminent ""return to rock"" to sound like-- we quite literally have an anthem for the ages
Read Review
-
8.0
4978
8.0 |
No Ripcord
Two Dancers marks a big step forward for Wild Beasts. The eccentricities are still present, the quirks still correct, but everything has been shepherded into a more cohesive, frequently more melancholy, totality
Read Review
-
8.0
4968
8.0 |
The Observer
A wonderful, successful revival of indie rock's once staple but often forgotten values of wit and intellect, both themes traditionally accompanied by a tentative, thwarted sexuality but here enhanced, rather marvellously, by an excitable lust for life in general
Read Review
-
8.0
4964
8.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
-
8.0
4965
8.0 |
Q
Print edition only
-
8.0
4958
8.0 |
Observer Music Monthly
Those who like their pop arch, odd and romantically heightened will find Two Dancers a treasure trove. The guitars say Orange Juice, Talking Heads and early Aztec Camera; the voice says Billy Mackenzie, Sparks and Antony Hegarty
Read Review
-
8.0
4961
8.0 |
Uncut
There’s a certain opulent shimmer to songs like the glassy, undulating opener, “The Fun Powder Plot”, which recalls late-period Roxy Music, while the unstable yodel of frontman Hayden Thorpe is, if anything, kin to that of Associates’ Billy Mackenzie
Read Review
-
8.0
4974
8.0 |
The Times
Shimmering instrumentation and the kind of sweet-and-sour lyrics that dripped from the lips of a young Morrissey
Read Review
-
6.0
4967
6.0 |
The Scotsman
Wild Beasts rein in the unhinged Weimar cabaret tendencies of their debut album on Two Dancers and, in so doing, create something which sacrifices audacity for marginally more commercial appeal
Read Review
-
6.0
4973
6.0 |
Evening Standard
The lyrics are darkly poetic and hint at a contemporary paganism. Drums patter, guitars chime and lead vocalist Hayden Thorpe specialises in a lush falsetto
Read Review
-
6.0
4963
6.0 |
The Irish Times
Is this taming of Wild Beasts a good thing? Mostly, but if they combined the energy of their debut with the depth the follow-up, their third album could be a classic
Read Review
-
4.0
4975
4.0 |
Daily Telegraph
Against an oblique guitar backdrop, Thorpe mostly warbles in a faltering falsetto
Read Review
-
2.0
4960
2.0 |
The List
The band’s white-boy funked-up indie fare is drearily forgettable to the point of complete amnesia.
Read Review
-