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8.3
38250
8.3 |
Pretty Much Amazing
Much of the album depends on rich orchestral swells with generous waves of cymbal rolls and deep piano chords. Coupled with cathartic lyrics, A Sleep & A Forgetting is Thorburn’s most honest yet
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8.0
38255
8.0 |
Prefix
A bare bones examination of a void in Thorburn's chest. The construction is impeccable—it's the caliber we've come to expect, it's still crazy infectious, but the tone is different. It's quieter and it's sad, and it's an interesting foray into introspection
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7.9
38252
7.9 |
Pitchfork
It's something of a triumph for Thorburn, to match his most emotionally devastating material yet with music that's so close-sounding and unassumingly, unabashedly pretty
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7.5
38247
7.5 |
Paste Magazine
An inspired look at the grieving human heart. And one of the best Islands records so far, to boot
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7.3
38256
7.3 |
Beats Per Minute
Other than the surprising change in direction, what’s most impressive about A Sleep & A Forgetting is Thorburn’s clever way of acknowledging the band’s existence and body of work
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7.0
38251
7.0 |
PopMatters
Heartbreak albums can typically be either brilliantly heartrending or they can be wallowing and self-indulgent. For Islands, thankfully, A Sleep and A Forgetting is largely neither: it’s just very good
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6.0
38253
6.0 |
No Ripcord
A Sleep & A Forgetting, too many times, just lapses into a general malaise. It's not as if the songwriting's not up to it. It clearly is. It's just that, well, it gets a bit boring, a bit sleepy, and altogether, it's a bit forgettable
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5.0
38254
5.0 |
Slant Magazine
The puffiness that made Arm's Way such a muddle is mostly gone, but so is any sense of adventurousness, along with most of the reason for listening. This is mildly composed, generally genial pop, with a few good hooks and ideas scattered throughout
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