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Sep 10, 2013This is real music, about real people, dealing in real emotion. That it sounds so gorgeously lush too is mere icing on a very rich cake.
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Sep 9, 2013It's Goldfrapp's most sophisticated work to date, and one of their most consistently satisfying albums.
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Q MagazineJan 27, 2014This restless duo have never sounded so much like themselves, and the result is spellbinding. [Oct 2013, p.107]
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Sep 17, 2013The album has a movie score feel, but this time every track is its own short film.
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Sep 11, 2013Tales of Us unveils yet again how talented Goldfrapp truly is as together Alison and Gregory continue to craft music that does not pigeonhole them into a set genre; they simply make exceptional music.
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Sep 9, 2013Tales of Us has a stately pace and woozy beauty, with cinematic orchestration of swaying strings over acoustic guitar or mossy cello.
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Sep 9, 2013The delicate guitar and piano figures and the sombre languor of strings behind Alison Goldfrapp’s breathy vocals create something akin to a cross between the dreamlike mythopoeism of old folk tales and the lush cinematic arrangements of Michel Legrand.
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Sep 9, 2013Each song is presented as a character sketch, and while the stories are impressionistic, often opaque, they feel richly textured: they live and breathe.
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Sep 9, 2013An intimate collection of fireside confessionals which weave their spell on you with a slow-burning intensity, seducing the listener by stealth.
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MojoAug 30, 2013The mood is all of a piece, the songs are stronger, and nobody suggests lightening the atmosphere with a high-energy single. [Sep 2013, p.84]
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Aug 30, 2013It's a haunting song cycle, one that might not necessarily appeal to their fanbase as a whole. But give it another listen; for all its subtlety, this is a role that Goldfrapp was born to play. [Aug-Sep 2013, p.90]
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Sep 12, 2013A short film accompanies the release, but it hardly seems necessary, given the music’s powerful cinematic evocativeness.
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Sep 11, 2013Tales of You is all rather beautiful, but also rather quiet.
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MagnetSep 19, 2013Musically, it's their most ambitious release, with full orchestras and mysterious meditations of reality and fantasy. [No. 102, p.56]
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Sep 18, 2013The album’s an impressive new beginning for the singer, and while she doesn’t quite get there 100%, she’s at least entertained the idea that this place is no fantasy.
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Sep 13, 2013Goldfrapp have seemingly rekindled their creative fires and the result is a challenging and devastatingly beautiful record.
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Sep 13, 2013It is a solid and dependable album, sure of its own purpose yet ready to complement those poignant moments when all that seems to be missing is a cue for the dramatic music to start.
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Sep 9, 2013If Tales of Us has a weakness, it's its tonal consistency.
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Sep 9, 2013The arrangements here are certainly accomplished, but it's still that voice which makes the whole thing glow.
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Aug 30, 2013Tales Of Us is relentlessly one note but frequently beautiful, and a welcome change from the theatrics of its immediate predecessor, 2010’s ‘Head First’.
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Sep 12, 2013Diehard fans of Goldfrapp will no doubt find something to love here, but for the rest of us, it’s a thin record that doesn’t do much to prop up its skeletal frame.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 49 out of 55
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Mixed: 2 out of 55
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Negative: 4 out of 55
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Sep 10, 2013
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Sep 24, 2013
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Sep 19, 2013