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It’s as warm and melodic as the Soft Boys’ Nextdoorland was brittle and jagged.
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It's that perfect balance of sadness, vitriol, and absurdity that makes Hitchcock (when he's on) such a legendary social commentator.
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Olé! Tarantula delivers the goods: jangly, addictive psychedelic pop of the type Hitchcock mastered with the Soft Boys and the Egyptians.
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If you like catchy guitar pop with imaginative lyrics, Olé! Tarantula deserves a spot on your shelves.
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MagnetTerrifically jangling. [#73, p.99]
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UncutOne of Hitchcock's very best. [Nov 2006, p.114]
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Spin[He] gets back to the sweetly twisted folk rock that he does so well. [Nov 2006, p.100]
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Hitchcock has a knockout gift for Beatlesque melodicism, and the Venus 3 rev it up here with a beat-combo drive and star-shine twang that sound like Murmur in space.
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The quartet captures a harmonic pop mayhem they haven't approached individually with much consistency in the recent past.
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Olé! Tarantula isn't his best solo record, but it's in the top tier, and after all these years that's certainly something.
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The best Hitchcock album of the new millennium: Less insistently jagged and catchy, but with a bit of sting wrapped in its more tasteful arrangements.
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It’s a fine record -- one of his better in some time.
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Olé! Tarantula... is one of the eccentric singer-songwriter's best in years, mainly because it sounds almost exactly like something he would've recorded two decades ago.
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Unfortunately, the magic of [the] first three songs is never captured again.
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Hitchcock has made a return to garage rock not heard since 1989's Queen Elvis.
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Q MagazineHis most conventionally rocking album in aeons. [Nov 2006, p.143]
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MojoHis most satisfying album in a decade. [Dec 2006, p.106]
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It’s the best batch of songs he’s had in a while.
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Paste MagazineHitchcock returns to his trademark: arpeggiated guitars swirling around hyperactive basslines with whimsical lyrics cloaked in harmony that turn dark without warning. [Oct 2006, p.76]
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