 |
|
|
New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
|
The Air Force
by Xiu Xiu
Deerhoof's Greg Saunier produced this fifth album for the experimental Bay Area band led by Jamie Stewart.
| LABEL: |
5 Rue Christine |
| RELEASE DATE: |
12 September 2006 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Indie, Rock |
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...
81
cokemachineglow
The Air Force has a lot of good songs on it.
80
Drowned In Sound
It seems, in musical form, this album moves back and forth between sore tenderness and a violent turn - coercing the listener into adoring the beauty and open-wound vulnerability, but simultaneously pushing the same listener away with a dirty menace and obtuse lyricism.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
The Air Force may signal that Xiu Xiu isn't as jarring and bewildering as they once were, but there's more than enough fortitude and craft present to ensure that Stewart will always be a good handful of steps ahead of everyone else making "experimental" pop.
80
All Music Guide
The goal of Xiu Xiu's confessional, confrontational music is to shake their listeners out of complacency and make them think and feel; once again, they accomplish this mission beautifully.
80
Pitchfork
Their most understated, surprisingly sweetest album to date.
80
PopMatters
Their greatest album.
80
Under The Radar
There aren’t any huge surprises or new developments on The Air Force;. Which, coming from a band that sounds like nothing else on the indie landscape, means that it’s another devastating collection of deluded, terrifying grandeur. [#15]
80
NOW Magazine
Here, Jamie Stewart and his crew of arty innovators use the penchant for sonic deconstruction they honed last time round to take their project of disemboweling pop songs to a new plane.
75
Los Angeles Times
Each Xiu Xiu song is a little hothouse where the forbidden grows, not free, but safe.
70
Slant Magazine
If lacking the thematic coherence of the politically-charged La Foret or the alternately furious and vulnerable Fabulous Muscles, the songs on The Air Force trade in volatile sexual energy and a degree of self-loathing that's more fully-realized than most goth-metal bands would dare record.
70
Prefix Magazine
The Air Force goes beyond music that you play to clear out a party; it's the album you play to let your invitees know that you actually hate them.
60
Mojo
An uncomfortable yet rewarding listen. [Dec 2006, p.110]
60
Spin
It's a blessing and a curse that he's never sounded more unhinged. [Oct 2006, p.105]
50
Dusted Magazine
While Jamie Stewart & co. succeed at replicating the fractured nature of their live shows – the mix of sparse and dense, broken and enraged, auxiliary percussion and programming, noise and melodiousness is all here – it's beginning to sound rote.
The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Discuss this album in our forums |
|
 |
|
 |
