Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
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  1. The Wire
    Dec 21, 2016
    80
    Youngs’s knack of picking resonant phrases is at peak levels. [Dec 2016, p.66]
  2. Uncut
    Dec 12, 2016
    80
    The result: gorgeous, unpretentious post-folk melancholy. [Jan 2017, p.32]
  3. Dec 14, 2016
    70
    Richard Youngs has given us an album that just about anyone can pick up a guitar to play along to, but that doesn’t mean the experience of listening to The Rest is Scenery is an easy one. Fans of his, of course, wouldn’t have it any other way.
  4. Dec 12, 2016
    70
    Despite self-imposed strategic boundaries, The Rest Is Scenery is a remarkably free and unfettered album. Most artists couldn't conceive of such a thing, let alone pull it off; Youngs does it in spades.
  5. Q Magazine
    Dec 13, 2016
    60
    A specialist interest. [Feb 2017, p.119]
  6. Mojo
    Dec 12, 2016
    60
    If it doesn't reach the sustained invention of John Coltrane's odyssey in E, Africa/Brass, Youngs' talent for wringing emotion from base materials remain undimmed. [Jan 2017, p.102]
  7. Dec 12, 2016
    60
    Young is classically trained, but beholden to the values of punk rock and for this collection he has decided to throw technical competence out of the window by basing each song around the strumming of a single chord. These tunes can thus, in theory, be covered by anyone within hours of picking up a guitar.

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