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9.4
84410
9.4 |
Paste Magazine
The mish-mash of Garbus and Thao’s sound, it can break you to pieces in the most powerful ways possible
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9.0
84413
9.0 |
Exclaim
An album that has the ability to shake its listeners from within
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8.0
84411
8.0 |
The Guardian
Man Alive often feels busy, it’s rarely overbearingly so, due to Nguyen’s ear for an off-kilter pop melody
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8.0
84412
8.0 |
All Music
Even at 12 tracks, the album will leave many wanting more
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8.0
84453
8.0 |
Pitchfork
If the sound of A Man Alive! is informed by Garbus' unmistakable presence, lyrically, Nguyen is grappling with absence—specifically, that of her father, who abandoned her family at a young age
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8.0
84676
8.0 |
The Quietus
As percussive as her previous offerings, A Man Alive is jaunty but perhaps less folky than normal, endowed significantly with the spirit of Tune-Yards' Merill Garbus, the queen of both loop and uke
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8.0
88670
8.0 |
Spin
It’s ironic that such a painful backstory has birthed this crop of relatively cheerful-sounding — not to mention industrious, and never dull — tracks,
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7.5
84415
7.5 |
Consequence Of Sound
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down reinvented themselves in the realm of noisy art rock and Nguyen couldn’t sound more thrilled
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7.0
84416
7.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
The tired old indie rock template is torn up and all those melting harmonies and jangling melodies are twisted and morphed into something more jaunty and abstract
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7.0
84417
7.0 |
PopMatters
Hopefully potential new fans will give A Man Alive a thorough chance to win them over, because it’s worth the time
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7.0
84547
7.0 |
Spectrum Culture
An expertly crafted album filled with references to pain and loss
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7.0
85521
7.0 |
Earbuddy
Thao Nguyen changes her band's DNA with mixed...but mostly good results on A Man Alive
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4.0
84414
4.0 |
Loud And Quiet
But there is a difference between pleasingly raw, and lazily random, and at times this record feels like a demo, or even a recording of a rehearsal
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