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Thier major label debut is drenched in the same warm sonic haze and bizarro imagery as Flaming Lips, but any weirdness comes in the service of the songs. [Nov 2008, p.98]
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FilterWhile Margot's musical aspirations are at times akin to the drama of Bright Eyes, Radiohead, Wilco and Arcade Fire, the lyrics of frontman Richard Edwards are its genuine definition. [Fall 2008, p.100]
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Not Animal gets better as it progresses--the sparser, melancholic songs are pushed to the front, leaving the band's energetic material to bring up the rear--and Margot's sophomore album subsequently concludes on a high note, effectively masking any sour taste left by the band's battle with Epic Records.
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Throughout the 19 tracks, the group comes across as confident and capable of charming in varying motifs across the rock spectrum.
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Alternative PressIt doesn't quite have the emotional snap their debut so admirably possessed, but the musicians have an apparent precision of craft. [Jan 2008, p.125]
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The album splits the difference between smart and smarty-pants: The articulate arrangements occasionally overdo the left-field instrumentation, and Richard Edwards’s empathetic short-story tales flirt with fussiness.
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Not Animal is a more modest album that presents a shrewd view of Margot's strengths and weaknesses, indicating that the band is most successful when it doesn't try to be particularly complex.
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Not Animal isn’t exactly what Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s would want it to be. It’s probably not quite what many fans would like, either....But it is an interesting record--in every sense of the word--in the musical evolution of the group.
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It sounds like Broken Social Scene's members all broke up with their significant others and held a jam session on Saddle Creek Road. Morose, impeccably arranged, and monochromatic from start to finish, both incarnations of Animal are a perfect synthesis of indie-rock circa 2008.
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