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Apr 5, 2018Rare Birds is a must for fans of The War on Drugs, and for any rock fans who believe the album is a lost art.
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Mar 5, 2018Rare Birds is sprawling, rich and, by and large, a triumph, its cosmic mindset and focus on detail breathing drama into songs that in lesser hands might sound stale.
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Mar 2, 2018Thankfully, while pouring out his soul into three or four-minute measures he never loses sight of his attractive Americana-goes-pop sensibilities, most perfectly realised on Over The Midnight and the title track.
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MojoFeb 26, 2018Rare Birds unpacks a wealth of sonic detail. In the best way, this feels like a record you could lose yourself in for months. [Apr 2018, p.87]
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Feb 26, 2018Rare Birds is a strikingly original, complex and inspired work, one that requires your attention and rewards repeated spins.
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Feb 26, 2018Rare Birds is practically bulging with strong material. It’s telling that the album’s strongest moment--the desolately soaring closer “Mulholland Queen”--is also its least densely ornamented: on this form, Wilson’s songs require no extra polish or decorations to compel. Despite its flaws, Rare Birds is a rare find.
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MagnetApr 17, 2018Wilson is brilliant and creative yet hindered by his own expansive eclecticism and purple prose. [No. 150, p.61]
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Mar 2, 2018It's clear that Jonathan Wilson's naked ambition has reached a zenith, for better and for worse, with Rare Birds.
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Mar 2, 2018Rare Birds is dizzying in ambition and (mostly) dazzling in execution. It offers hours of enjoyment to anyone who takes it on.
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UncutFeb 26, 2018The songs are autobiographical, but not always straightforwardly so. [Apr 2018, p.22]
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Q MagazineMar 13, 2018Highlights aren't hard to find. ... But there's a fair amount of flab too, and at 78 minutes long there's the sense that Rare Birds is too sprawling for its own good. [May 2018, p.114]
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Mar 8, 2018In large part a break-up album, Rare Birds finds Wilson picking through the romantic embers and taking tentative steps forward, over arrangements reflecting both his recent position in Roger Waters’s touring band and his need for healing.
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Mar 6, 2018Ultimately, there's too much of it and not enough of the tracks here are anything other than mediocre, indie singer/songwriter tunes that are as easily discarded as they appear to be easily written and produced.