Albums to watch

Hippo Lite

DRINKS

Hippo Lite

Second album from Tim Presley (White Fence) and Cate Le Bon recorded in the south of France

ADM rating[?]

7.0

Label
Drag City
UK Release date
20/04/2018
US Release date
20/04/2018
  1. 9.0 |   Loud And Quiet

    While ‘Hippo Lite’ sounds fresh and exhilarating, it could also be an undiscovered obscurity from a bygone era
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  2. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Feels like Le Bon and Presley's own little musical microclimate. You don't have to know exactly what they're on about to recognise that it's something special. Print edition only

  3. 8.0 |   Q

    Hippo Lite is brilliantly abrasive, any prettier blips overwhelmed by Real Outside's uncanny whirl or the ESP crackle of Corner shops. Print edition only

  4. 8.0 |   The Quietus

    The whole lot is threaded together by recurrent John Cale strings and a smattering of found sounds: from creaking door through chattering bird, serenading frog and burbling human baby
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  5. 8.0 |   God Is In The TV

    It’s fair to say that DRINKS are not for the faint-hearted. If you’re someone who needs music to ‘click’ the first, or even second, time you hear it, then Hippo Lite is perhaps not for you
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  6. 8.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    The pair have taught us the valuable lesson that weirdness needn’t be conjured under pretense from far out places while the mundanity of real life can prove far more potent
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  7. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    It is a fairly bizarre album, but an absorbing and clever one that gets stranger as it goes on
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  8. 8.0 |   DIY

    Something new on every listen
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  9. 8.0 |   The FT

    What initially appears whimsical and slight becomes more charming with each spin
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  10. 8.0 |   Pitchfork

    Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley sound blissfully removed on their second album as a duo, in a quizzical world of their own creation
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  11. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Suffused with as much sadness as madness. Print edition only

  12. 8.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    What remains most alluring about this experiment’s broken logic is the sense that you’re furtively occupying someone else’s dream
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  13. 7.8 |   Earbuddy

    As strange and enjoyable as anything else in these two’s discography
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  14. 7.0 |   All Music

    Like Hermits on Holiday, it's first-rate experimental rock made by two musicians with interesting, complicated ideas and the skills to bring them to life
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  15. 7.0 |   Under The Radar

    Hippo Lite is as refreshing as one can expect from Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley but this time around, the drinks this pair are serving have a bit more bite
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  16. 7.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    The second album from Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley carries the same sense of freedom as their first outing, this time a bit softer and more song-shaped than their debut’s meanderings
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  17. 7.0 |   No Ripcord

    The results border on “rough cut,” as if five or six of the album’s twelve tracks were fully developed and meant as anchors for Hippo Lite’s more spontaneous and quirky output
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  18. 6.0 |   NME

    It sounds like the perfect zen trip away, and the experience rubs off on this neatly self-contained record, made without any interference or anxious reminder of deadlines
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  19. 5.9 |   Paste Magazine

    Appreciating these songs may take time, attention and acceptance, but if Hippo Lite has already depleted your supply of these qualities, that’s understandable
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  20. 4.0 |   The 405

    Poor by most standards, not just for seasoned pros like Le Bon and Presley
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  21. 4.0 |   The Observer

    While Hippo Lite does have its moments, well before the end you find yourself reflecting that Young Marble Giants, Rosa Yemen and the Raincoats did this far better almost 40 years ago
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  22. 3.0 |   Exclaim

    Most of the tracks unfortunately tread into self-indulgent wank territory, perhaps too clever by a half
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