Bonfires On The Heath
by The Clientele
  • Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: Oct 6, 2009
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Delusions of Adequacy
    100
    All in all, for The Clientele this is another great album in what’s getting to be a long line of great albums.
  2. The A.V. Club
    91
    Bonfires On The Heath continues one of the most remarkable winning streaks in alt-pop, in which each Clientele album has sounded like a welcome refinement of what came before.
  3. PopMatters
    90
    Their finest and most expansive collection to date, and one of the finest pop offerings of 2009, this album takes all their strengths--haunting and sublime.
  5. Prefix Magazine
    85
    That flash of a golden moment in between something sparking in the air and fading quickly away is all The Clientele are living for in this batch of heart-breakingly beautiful tunes, and its what Bonfires on the Heath seems to hold in the center of its heart.
  6. Paste Magazine
    85
    For those who cherished the late, great Go-Betweens, Galaxie 500 and The Zombies, take heart--here is your new favorite album, filled to bursting with shivering tremolo guitars, surrealist poetry and the sort of melodies that made the kids’ knees buckle whenever “Time of the Season” graced the airwaves.
  7. AllMusic
    80
    The warmth it conveys is immense, and along with the happiness it provides, the album also shows that the Clientele continue to be one of the best pop bands around in the 2000s.
  8. The Guardian
    80
    Alasdair MacLean's impressionistic imagery doesn't always justify his fondness for repeating himself and, chiefly, it's the wispy guitar and delicate piano surrounding these hushed tales of lost love and half-forgotten reminiscences that renders them mesmerising.
  9. Drowned In Sound
    80
    They all contribute to the consistency of atmosphere that makes the album in itself such a distinctively satisfying listen, and one in which anybody who makes the initial effort can immerse themselves entirely.
  10. Q Magazine
    80
    Unashamedly English with a slightly mysterious undertow, the likes of Harvest Time and Graven wood recall Pink Floyd at their most pastoral. [Jan 2010,p. 126]
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  11. Uncut
    80
    Like Felt Before them, The Clientele have completed a commercially neglected yet conceptually immaculate decade, mapping, across four albums and a couple of compilations, a twilit suburb of English pop, as though a young TS Eliot had fronted The Zombies. [Jan 2010, p. 105]
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  12. cokemachineglow
    76
    While moments off Bonfires have already proven hugely worthwhile, predominantly because of the textures Mel Draisey adds, it still lacks the cohesiveness, the clarion voice, of a band singularly in control of a well-tread sound.
  13. Pitchfork
    74
    The Clientele aren't vain or foolish enough to try rocking out for a whole album. And even the ersatz shit sounds lush as hell.
  14. Filter
    72
    The music’s sharp focus, peppered with gallantly chirping "Forever Changes" brass and sometimes slipping into a Floyd-like coast of silvery slide guitar, is the solid ground on which ghosts tread.
  15. No Ripcord
    70
    Bonfires on the Heath is another shrewd effort for the London based band.
  16. Spin
    60
    Though Bonfires' pacing is erratic, the band keeps winsome romance close.
  17. Tiny Mix Tapes
    60
    Bonfires is certainly a step up on its efficient, bloodless predecessor "God Save The Clientele" and stands up no matter what’s next for the band.
  18. Under The Radar
    60
    At this point the band has mastered its studied simplicity. [Fall 2009, p.57]
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  19. NOW Magazine
    60
    The quartet is at its best when hushed, autumnal and kaleidoscopic. Still, you can’t blame them for trying to push the envelope.
  20. Mojo
    60
    Bonfires is an honourable epitaph. [Feb 2010, p. 100]
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Awards & Rankings

75
#75 Best Album of 2009

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. PJD
    Oct 10, 2009
    8
    Remi T., your last comment made no sense. It was like you were trying really really hard to sound like a professional critic but you just Remi T., your last comment made no sense. It was like you were trying really really hard to sound like a professional critic but you just sound ridiculous. Oh yeah, also this is a pretty good cd. It'll grow on you.… Full Review »
  2. RemiT.
    Oct 9, 2009
    9
    If you are prepared and willing to go inside yourself for a while, than you will get a huge kick out of this album. If not, you will look at If you are prepared and willing to go inside yourself for a while, than you will get a huge kick out of this album. If not, you will look at it from the outside and think that most of it is depressing as hell. If you tend for the first option, get prepared to feel the warmth of a lovely room on a rainy thursday afternoon that's filled with talking portraits and revealing memories as a gentle cloud of opium drifts about. Probably their best since Strange Geometry.… Full Review »
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