I Am Not There Anymore
by The Clientele
  • Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: Jul 28, 2023
Metascore
89

Universal acclaim - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
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  1. AllMusic
    Jul 28, 2023
    90
    It adds up to another pitch perfect album by the band, certainly one of their best and most devastatingly pretty works. In a career full of brilliance, that's saying ever so much.
  2. musicOMH.com
    Jul 28, 2023
    90
    As the album draws to a close, it’s hard not to see I Am Not There Anymore as their most ambitious, artistically progressive offering to date.
  3. Uncut
    Jul 26, 2023
    90
    through his efforts to convey a profound experience of loss in a long-gone summer, these songs offer an uncommonly generous wealth of grace and beauty. [Aug 2023, p.32]
  5. Sputnikmusic
    Jul 26, 2023
    86
    At once exquisitely beautiful and deeply tragic, and imbued with a bucolic sense of a rural England full of villages and country lanes and woods and fields, I Am Not There Anymore is a journey that you won’t readily forget. Flaws and all, it’s both a worthy comeback for an excellent band and one of the year’s finest releases.
  6. Beats Per Minute
    Jul 28, 2023
    80
    They have managed to recapture the magic that permeated their best material and made it so imminently replayable. This is a bold move that should be celebrated, and more importantly, it should be emulated.
  7. Glide Magazine
    Jul 28, 2023
    80
    The hour of music on The Clientele’s I Am Not There Anymore flies by with a widely entertaining gusto while satisfying the band’s restless creativity.
  8. Pitchfork
    Jul 28, 2023
    80
    A fresh sense of discovery also suffuses I Am Not There Anymore’s more straightforward songs.
  9. Mojo
    Jul 26, 2023
    80
    Interspersed with scored interludes and fragments of poetry read by Jessica Griffin of Would-Be-Goods, the effect is one of benign diffusion, the hazy avenues of MacLean's impressionistic lyrics running through the music as if the songs themselves now inhabit that hypnopompic state of consciousness where the centre cannot hold. [Aug 2023, p.86]
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  10. The Quietus
    Jul 26, 2023
    80
    Despite the strong influence that can detected in the band’s style – Smile via Penguin Café Orchestra, The High Llamas and contemporary classical ensemble North Sea Radio Orchestra perhaps – few others are so committed to making music that sounds like this. After decades building up to it, The Clientele have produced what is probably their finest, most enjoyable record.

Awards & Rankings

15
#15 Best Album of 2023
71
#71 Most Discussed Album of 2023

User Reviews

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User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. Lajaleaa
    Aug 29, 2023
    6
    This is as good as mediocre gets. I apologize for this, but I'm not sure why I found barely pieces of music and sound in here. I readThis is as good as mediocre gets. I apologize for this, but I'm not sure why I found barely pieces of music and sound in here. I read somewhere this would be something like "straight forward"... and it was in the worst possible way. There is a comeback exploration feel in here, which at the beginning sounds like a styless statement, then it just became too long with the interludes that, from my point of view, they were just as empty as any other song in the album. The lyrics can come interesting in some few songs, the composition is just a very recycled concept of pop/rock that doesn't actually propose nothing new, interesting or even entertaining. I also don't feel the concept and the composition are working together, and that might be because of a lack of focus on most or all matters. Honestly, I would not be sure what things (because they are several) are the ones holding back the album almost to its invisibility.
    For my first time listening to this band, this feels more like a funding than an actual comeback.    … Full Review »
  2. jimmypowder
    Aug 4, 2023
    10
    Will be rated as a classic inWill be rated as a classic in hindsight...................................................................................................................................................… Full Review »
  3. drusslaw
    Jul 28, 2023
    10
    Phenomenal album from a band that never seems to get enough credit for their brilliance. Go listen to their whole catalogue, you won't bePhenomenal album from a band that never seems to get enough credit for their brilliance. Go listen to their whole catalogue, you won't be disappointed.… Full Review »
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