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8.0
1218
8.0 |
Observer Music Monthly
Where there are lyrics, they are usually so swamped in echo, delay and distortion that they are unintelligible. Instead, everything is focused on the extraordinary physicality of their sound: spasmodic, psychedelic, heavy, loud and life-affirming
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8.0
1221
8.0 |
The List
Don’t cower from the Bolt’s hot bedlam: there’s gold in these here slabs of clamour.
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8.0
1222
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Actually, in terms of variations in pitch and rhythm, subtleties of light and shade, this closing tour de force is easily the most impressive and diverse of Earthly Delight’s witheringly caustic offerings
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8.0
5737
8.0 |
NME
Out of the lo-fi punk/hardcore/black metal bedrock clatter of sound they create, lysergic and buzzing riffs clarify gloriously before melting back into chaos
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8.0
5775
8.0 |
Uncut
Print edition only
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8.0
5928
8.0 |
The Quietus
...the acid test of Earthly Delights is, of course, whether it sounds like any other band whatsoever. And it doesn't. It's thoroughly imperfect and makes a virtue of its messiness, proclaiming chaos the true victor, but sometimes, through the blitz, transformative and glorious in its flaws
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8.0
6021
8.0 |
No Ripcord
The band’s greatest weakness is also their greatest strength—they’re far more interested in testing out how far they can take their music than stopping where others might feel like they’ve gone too far. Earthly Delights shows that they have yet to exhaust their uncanny vision
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8.0
6428
8.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
The variety here is noteworthy for a band working in such a defined aesthetic. The slower-paced interludes, such as "Rain on Lake I’m Swimming In," are some of the prettiest (yes, prettiest) Lightning Bolt songs to date
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8.0
6496
8.0 |
Blurt
...that inability to settle for any one idea has always been the best virtue of Lightning Bolt, making their music as colorful and inviting as it is chaotic
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8.0
7428
8.0 |
The Irish Times
The real joys of Earthly Delights come when you go with the flow and surrendering yourself to Lightning Bolt’s heavyweight noise and inventive, life-affirming riffs
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7.6
1223
7.6 |
Pitchfork
...of all the Lightning Bolt albums so far, this is the one most likely to wear you out with unrelenting heaviness and elongated mega-jamming
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7.0
6463
7.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
On 'Earthly Delights' the Rhode Island duo has realized that effects and random noises can only go so far
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7.0
1220
7.0 |
PopMatters
What Lightning Bolt excels at—what it’s always excelled at—is delivering bass riffs that sound like Zeus rolling down the mountainside in a Harley Davidson with Keith Moon flailing maniacally in the sidecar. What else could you need?
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6.0
6818
6.0 |
Mojo
Print edition only
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6.0
1219
6.0 |
Spin
Their unholy fuzz feels less triumphant ... Still, Lightning Bolt's basement has never sounded bigger.
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