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Upper Air is a comely album through and through, and certainly one of this year’s high-water marks for the acoustically inclined.
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Overall, you get the kind of lush musings that’ll soundtrack all the pivotal moments of your wayward summer romance. Blissful.
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MojoSparse backing, strings or a brimming organ interject occasionally, and enhance their combined voices on a brilliantly realised record. [Aug 2009, p.100]
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UncutIt shares Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago's" exquisite sense of existing in its own hermetically sealed world. [Aug 2009, p.87]
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FilterHere, every strain, key, and vocal is stirred up into a creaky, constanaut, clearly-defined symphony. [Summer 2009, p.98]
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There are times when Upper Air could be some clandestine jam session in the wilderness.
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I'm going to let the band off the hook for the holding pattern; in the meantime, we'll simply revel in the general loveliness of these 10 compositions, which utilize the debut's blueprints in the creation of sublime melodies, absorbing lyricism and delicate harmonic interplay.
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Those who weren't so sure about the Bowerbirds before might change their tune with this release--Upper Air is a luminous, wild-eyed affair, and a solid second album to boot.
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A stronger verse/chorus foundation might make the songs more instantly accessible and easier to remember. But by making it easier to access, Bowerbirds might well be depriving listeners of the chance to make their own way, to wander in the desert a little even.
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It might be a predictable record, but it’s an entrancing listen, an album that might coax Bowerbirds towards even bolder musical territory on their third release.