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Circular Sounds is altogether smoother than the musician's previous work, but it's far from slick, packed with enough grit (note the slightly off-key horns in 'Everything Begins') and solid songcraft to set itself apart from the retro-rock catalog.
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While Circular Sounds isn’t quite the modern sound of the American west coast, it feels very much like the classic sound of California: a sound left blissfully alone by the stresses and rigours of a modernity forever on the move.
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Circular Sounds takes the craft aspect to a higher level. Stoltz’s early records were scrappy, guitar-centric home recordings, and his previous LP, Below the Branches, was a piano-dominated, primary colors affair, but this one is a study in how to blend signifiers and sonorities so that they enhance each other.
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Circular Sounds is a collection of snappy, mildly psychedelic, instantly memorable songs, delivered with an unfussy and becoming modesty.
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MojoIn short, genial, infectious guitar pop like they used to make. [Feb 2008, p.102]
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Circular Sounds is brimming with unidentifiable gasps and skronks, and while it occasionally seems like Stoltz, a longtime advocate of home recording, spends a little too much time knee-deep in obscure noisemakers, his scrappiest tracks are also his best.
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From beginning to end Circular Sounds feels familiar. And with only one track (just) over four minutes, Stoltz holds true to pop convention in length as well as arrangements.
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Sure, it might be nice if Stoltz could innovate more with his influences, like the Pet Sounds impressionism of Panda Bear's Person Pitch. But flashbacks this vivid are good enough for now.
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Under The RadarAnother intimate, handcrafted gift from a criminally unknown--in his own country, anyway--artist. [Winter 2008, p.84]
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Circular Sounds can feel impersonal, especially in how Stoltz hopscotches from voice to voice, some far stronger than others.
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Stoltz knows that sometimes the best way through anything, from hangovers to hopelessness, requires just good pop, a steady beat and the sound that everything’s okay. That’s what he does very well.
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In this bruised, romantic world, waking up with hangovers and noticing the empty side of the bed is the norm; for people experiencing or remembering similar situations, this is a nice aural comforter.
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Q MagazineHe remains a little too in thrall to these heavy influences, despite fashioning an album of melodious songs that deserve a wider audience. [Mar 2008, p.115]
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It's very catchy, but the center doesn't hold.
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Except for the admittedly awesome surf-rock instrumental 'Reflecting,' there’s nothing done on Circular Sounds that you can’t find done better on old vinyl, battered mixtapes, and (shudder) Counting Crows albums.