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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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City Of Refuge
by Castanets
The fourth album for the indie rock band features guest appearances by Jana Hunter, Sufjan Stevens, Dawn Smithson, Scot Tuma, and Ero Gray.
| LABEL: |
Asthmatic Kitty |
| RELEASE DATE: |
07 October 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Indie |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
80
All Music Guide
City of Refuge never succumbs to the silence that so obviously surrounds it. Even appearances (overdubbed after the initial field recordings) from Sufjan Stevens, Jana Hunter, Scott Tuma, Dawn Smithson, and Ero Gray feel unobtrusive, resulting in a strange, sad, but ultimately compelling collection of hopeless Western indie folk.
80
NOW Magazine
City Of Refuge’s 15 tracks are uneven in both length and musical depth--one track, 'High Plain 3,' is just a minute and 31 seconds of quiet, droning ambient static--yet the record plays out like the cohesive score to a postmodern, post-apocalyptic western.
80
PopMatters
Ray Raposa couldn’t stay in the City of Refuge, but he captured the best parts on this album and shared them with us.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
The resulting record plays like a soundtrack to a non-existent film, skeleton-framed and dramatic.
70
Hartford Courant
City of Refuge is an eerie, archaic record, and even the CD version sounds as though there's years of thick dust packed into the grooves.
70
Prefix Magazine
City of Refuge offers the refuge that comes with being aware of your surroundings and trying to make sense of both good and bad emotions without flinching. It is the refuge from ignorance that makes these songs timeless.
64
Paste Magazine
The fine-tuned spaces let you hear every rough callous scrape across the acoustic strings, every quick intake of breath before a verse.
60
Under The Radar
While the album is perhaps not as wholly satisfying as 2007's "In The Vines" and could benefit from a tighter structure, City Of Refuge, aided by contributions from Jana Hunter, Scott Tuma, and Sufjan Stevens, among others, sees Castanets craft passages of evocative, dusty beauty. [Fall 2008, p.74]
60
Spin
It's not the conceptul masterpiece he was clearly hoping for, but there are moments of transcendence just the same. [Nov 2008, p.89]
56
Pitchfork
City of Refuge seems more like a collection of ideas for three or four different albums than one complete work.
55
Almost Cool
Woozy and stark, City Of Refuge is one of those releases that never really shifts dynamics too much (there's no rhythm section on the entire album) and feels a bit longer than it actually is.
40
Austin Chronicle
Three weeks spent writing and recording alone has resulted in a cathartic outpouring that's both half-baked and hauntingly memorable.
40
Q Magazine
Raposa's songs are often just a little too aimless. [Dec 2008, p.126]
The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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