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Writer’s Block has announced the renaissance of both pop music and love.
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The band has smartened up, and now it's playing to its strengths.
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Writer's Block is the work of a band at the absolute peak of its writing and performing skill.
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New Musical Express (NME)By turns brooding and effervescent, but always outrageous fun, 'Writer's Block' is a compact minor classic.
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Despite its more fractured stylistic elements -- shoegaze smashing headlong into folk pop -- Writer’s Block emerges as one of the most complete and satisfying records of this year.
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The instrumentation is superb, the record feels unforced, and the music is heartfelt.
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Their most focused and fully realized effort yet-- an album that adds an imperial hugeness to the teen noir and garage-y psychedelia of their past efforts-- and one of the better pop records we've heard this year.
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In the end, Writer's Block isn't a life-changing musical statement, but it is a superb collection of finely crafted pop songs.
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An excellent third album from the Swedish trio, Writer's Block should make sure that the group remains in obscurity no more.
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Entertainment WeeklyThe balance of sweet and sad is just right. [16 Feb 2007, p.76]
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BillboardThe album is laced with spacey, distorted guitar fuzz, delicate '60s pop melodies, groovy basslines and winsome lyrics that coalesce into a unified group of songs from start to finish. [17 Feb 2007]
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A delightful album designed to sink in over repeated listens.
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UncutFor the most part, this Stockholm outfit's sun-streaked, clever-white-boy pop-funk catches a season as expusitely as Air did circa Moon Safari, or as Hot Chip have more recently. [Aug 2006, p.104]
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It shows a group both confident, with an established dynamic, and beaming in the light of their most triumphantly appealing effort.
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A delight, from start to finish.
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Under The RadarA diverse exercise in how a tiny band can re-invent itself on each track to sound forceful. [#15, p.84]
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SpinPB&J casually swap instruments and styles while carefully nuturing their ever-delicate tunes. [Mar 2007, p.88]
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It’s an eminently listenable album, but there’s no need for unchecked evangelism. Just enjoy the damn thing.
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MojoWhile their music does have a Scando smoothness to it, its ramshackle moments recall the Beta Band more than they do Sondre Lerche, The Cardigans, et al. [Sep 2006, p.100]
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Q MagazineIt walks the line between indie and pop without stumbling. [Oct 2006, p.125]
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If there's a main criticism of this record then it's the fact that it's not entirely cohesive.
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Writer's Block is one of those albums where the songs seem familiar in a good way.
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BlenderWhen these Swedes get whacked by romance, they cushion the blow with a reed-kneed bedroom boogie that shimmies while evoking decades of great escapist groove music. [Mar 2007, p.141]
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The first two songs eclipse any other songs on the album, but I'm not saying the rest of the material is weak.
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There's lots of sunny '60s pop that was prominent on PB&J's previous records ("Start To Melt" is the most successful one here), but the group has expanded their palette and broadened their strokes.
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Perhaps if each song were half the length, the fun, easy-listening element to PBJ's music would be more clear-cut. As it is, Writer's Block proves a real struggle.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 39 out of 44
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Mixed: 3 out of 44
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Negative: 2 out of 44
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Apr 25, 2012
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Oct 23, 2011A great all-around album. While some people may think 'Young Folks' overshadows the rest, all of the songs sound are actually very catchy tracks.
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Mar 23, 2011