Albums to watch

New Chain

Small Black

New Chain

Debut album of psychedelic electronica and chillwave from the Brooklyn four-piece

ADM rating[?]

6.4

Label
Jagjaguwar
UK Release date
25/10/2010
  1. 7.5 |   The Quietus

    In displaying the guts to drag chillwave out of its lo-fi comfort zone, Small Black really set themselves apart from the pack; far enough at least to suggest the genre may have room to grow after all
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  2. 7.2 |   Pitchfork

    Feels like a sunrise bike ride with a head full of weed, but this time in full-blown technicolor
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  3. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    They’d do well to explore their own record collections again and not get caught up listening too intently to the music of their tourmates
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  4. 7.0 |   BBC

    These songs could be the dream sequences to 80s films which were never made
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  5. 7.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    A 35-minute celebration of the spirituality of sound, bursting with life and soul, as thrilling as it is giddying
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  6. 7.0 |   Bowlegs

    There is an occasional darkness lurking behind this music but that should not deter the listener from what is an imaginative album
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  7. 6.5 |   Prefix

    Listening to New Chain, there's no reason now to think that Small Black can't put that fine touch to making an album with a tight balance between their drowsier sensibilities and their hookier, head-nodding ones
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  8. 6.0 |   Q

    The perfect party album for wistful romantics. Print edition only

  9. 6.0 |   Uncut

    A gooey, if faintly sickly, treat. Print edition only

  10. 6.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    They are making pretty, tightly structured pop songs cheaply, or at least pop songs that sound cheaply made, and pretty, and melancholy, and somehow detached and futuristic
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  11. 6.0 |   musicOMH

    New Chain is unmistakably chillwave, undeniably fashionable within the American music scene right now, but doesn't half make you yearn for a bit of sunshine
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  12. 6.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    As a sonic carpet to roll out underneath those long and cold autumn evenings, it will work a treat
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  13. 6.0 |   Mojo

    Print edition only

  14. 6.0 |   NME

    Print edition only


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