Albums to watch

Everything is New

Jack Peñate

Everything is New

The British indie singer-songwriter, with a genre-defying second album

ADM rating[?]

7.0

Label
XL
UK Release date
22/06/2009
  1. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    It sounds like the gleeful, inspired work of a man who's recently undergone a Damascene musical conversion, possibly at the hands of his producer, Paul Epworth. The album's title is no idle boast: unexpected pleasures come no more unexpected than this
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  2. 8.0 |   The Times

    Perhaps the biggest triumph of Everything is New is that it has found a proper use for Peñate’s personality. The reason he was hurt by the reaction to his first album was that, deliberately or otherwise, he used his openness to try to mitigate the narrow horizons of his music. This time, his openness is the music
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  3. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    At only nine tracks long, Everything Is New never outstays its welcome, and is the perfect riposte for anyone who had previously dismissed Peñate as a scenester who'd got lucky. The reinvention of Jack Peñate starts here
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  4. 8.0 |   Observer Music Monthly

    It's clear the title is no plea to be forgiven for past sins. Skins have been shed, batteries recharged and the traditionally difficult second album dashed out with apparent ease. Of all the young artists that might have managed that feat, who'd have thought it would be this one?
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  5. 8.0 |   The Sunday Times

    Musically all over the place, Everything Is New lives up to its title, careering around genres... A brave, complex, exhilarating album
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  6. 8.0 |   The Times

    Sounds reborn, inhabiting these nine excellent pop songs with a physicality and, whisper it, sexiness that he simply didn’t appear to have in him
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  7. 8.0 |   The Quietus

    Might be a rather risky offering — indeed, it practically spits at stardom — but it really does do what it says on the tin, and it's all the better for it
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  8. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Print edition only

  9. 7.4 |   Pitchfork

    ...recalls 1980s UK pop at its most blinder-free: dance music that doesn't pander, globetrotting grooves that don't over-reach, songs hardly short on hooks but not smug about them, either
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  10. 7.0 |   Clash

    For all this talk of radical new beginnings, 'Everything Is New' is a fairly accurate progression from Peñate's exuberant (if one dimensional) beginnings, and displays that he has a fair few cards up his sleeve
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  11. 7.0 |   The Observer

    Refreshingly good (in musical terms that is: the see-through lyrics are less successful). Perhaps it is Peñate's delight in the newness of it all that makes the title track, and lead single ""Tonight's Today"", so infectious
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  12. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    Not just an unexpected comeback but an album that suggests that whatever guise he adopts next Jack Peñate is worth watching.
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  13. 7.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    With a greater use of the minor key, he's added flecks of sentiment to what is, predominantly, a very solid pop record. Just don't get bogged down in genre compartmentalisation. This isn't lo-fi krautrock this or soulful jazz that. Despite the tropical flourishes, Jack Peñate has simply returned with another chart-friendly pop album
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  14. 7.0 |   NME

    Jack Peñate has made a record that’s light on its feet, has glamour bordering on sex appeal and that doesn’t make you wish a fatwa upon its author. It’s a model for second albums everywhere and a testament to what can be achieved if you’re prepared to take a long, hard look at the man in the mirror. Let the bells ring out
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  15. 6.0 |   Spin

    Mixed yet intriguing results.
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  16. 6.0 |   Rolling Stone

    It's an appealingly scruffy sound — an underdog album, a record you want to root for.
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  17. 4.0 |   Uncut

    Print edition only

  18. 4.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Pleads with us to take him seriously. Hard to, when the kick-off single from Everything Is New boasts what can only be described as a deep-house backing track. It's that mockney accent that still grates most, though
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