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9.0
9058
9.0 |
The Fly
A rich, textured and truly timeless record that’s as serene and sublime as the sun-littered island of its title and front cover
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8.5
9099
8.5 |
The Line Of Best Fit
God and ecology and this greater breadth of sound matches the breadth of ideas on display; simply put The Golden Archipelago is a crowning achievement by a genuinely underrated band
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8.0
9103
8.0 |
Independent on Sunday
Progressive? Well, both Talk Talk and Gentle Giant fans will find stuff to enjoy here
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8.0
9400
8.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
The Golden Archipelago finds Shearwater primed to take their rightful place in the upper echelon of contemporary indie pop.
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8.0
8779
8.0 |
The Digital Fix
An emotional journey filled with majestic grandeur and heart-wrenching beauty
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8.0
8782
8.0 |
The Skinny
Another powerfully disarming collection of alternating baritone and falsetto melancholy
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8.0
8928
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
As with all of Shearwater’s work, this album is soaked in maritime imagery, populated by lonely explorers and watery vistas
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8.0
8952
8.0 |
NME
Print edition only
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8.0
10015
8.0 |
Blurt
Meiburg's classically trained tenor remains Shearwater's initial draw, an instrument as adept at heartrending falsetto as it is dramatic grandeur
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8.0
10656
8.0 |
Rave Magazine
The album has been perhaps unflatteringly compared with Pink Floyd’s elegiac swansong The Final Cut, and although it shares that record’s penchant for melancholic progressive rock, it’s much less of a slog
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7.9
9390
7.9 |
Pitchfork
It's an album you can spend time with and understand as a whole work, and one that grows on you with each listen, revealing yet more detail and nuance
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7.9
9391
7.9 |
Pitchfork
It's an album you can spend time with and understand as a whole work, and one that grows on you with each listen, revealing yet more detail and nuance
Read Review
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7.0
9662
7.0 |
PopMatters
Listening to The Golden Archipelago, you’ll realize that the last three Shearwater albums really are all one big movement. This is both the dramatic climax and the cathartic denouement
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7.0
9079
7.0 |
Clash
Meiburg’s voice is a wonder throughout, wonderfully fragile on ‘Hidden Lakes’, tearing it up on ‘Corridors’. A wonderful album
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7.0
9082
7.0 |
musicOMH
The Golden Archipelago is an admirable achievement: a project that has been meticulously prepared and executed with passion and flair
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6.0
8985
6.0 |
Uncut
Print edition only
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6.0
9025
6.0 |
The Irish Times
The overall ambience is one of understated, mystifying and occasionally eerie pagan folk. It’s an album that requires persistence, but one that’s nonetheless compelling
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6.0
8792
6.0 |
The List
There are gorgeous moments ... but the songwriting doesn’t always live up to the concept, despite plenty of skill and passion in the execution
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6.0
8913
6.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
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6.0
8919
6.0 |
Q
Print edition only
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6.0
10758
6.0 |
Eye Weekly
Jonathan Meiburg’s crystalline falsetto is better served ... in the dynamic piano ballads and new-wave colourings that make up the disc’s stronger second half
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4.0
9691
4.0 |
The Quietus
The Golden Archipelago is a folk album so overwrought and worthy that it sounds like one of Christy Moore's hangovers
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