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Reflektor

  • Great
  • Shit

0 voters

Hard to score given the gulf between Funeral and Everything Now. Will probably go a 4 on the strength of Funeral and The Suburbs.

Can I be the 851st person to say the first two albums are brilliant, and then it drops off a cliff? A positively Wu-Tangian career trajectory.

They have become one of those bands where Q magazine will give five stars to a new album and proclaim it a return to form, but everyone will have forgotten the record even exists six months later. They arrived bursting with talent and promise, theyā€™ve ended up as a Kings Of Leon for people who wear glasses.

3 Likes

First two albums very good, The Suburbs generally less good and overlong, most recent two absolute bum. Rounded up to three.

A key 2000s band that made me feel like I just didnā€™t like any 2000s music.

Listened to Funeral a lot trying to get it Just not for me although I guess I get the appeal so not totally baffling like some other big indie acts from around the same time.

I do really like Sarah Neufeldā€™s solo records.

2/5

1 Like

Iā€™ve given them a 3 because I genuinely did love those first two albums at the time. Then came The Suburbs which I thought was just a tedious, turgid slog. They picked things up a little with Reflektor (the single), but the rest of that album was shit. Not even heard the last one. Iā€™ve since revisited Funeral and I skipped great big chunks of it. And I got really bored during their Ā£2.50 BST show.

So after all that, 3 actually seems a little generous.

1 Like

4.5/5 rounded down to 4/5

Love Funeral, Neon Bible is almost there, and I probably prefer it in a way. The suburbs is a tad overlong and requires trimming, but has their best song. Donā€™t mind Reflektor and parts of EN, but thereā€™s a clear downward trajectory of output.

Really wouldnā€™t be overly fussed if they didnā€™t release anything again

2 Likes

4/5 as much as everything after Neon Bible has bits I donā€™t like I have never seen them play a bad gig. Still think that the Reflektor tour is them at their best.

Listened to Everything Now last week and it really does nothing for me (Creature Comforts is probably the only track I like).

Neighbourhood #3 Power Out into Rebellion (Lies) into Wake Up is just about one of the most life affirming things going or maybe starting a gig with Wake Up (they did that the 1st time I ever saw them
In Manchester think it was the 1st time they played Manchester).

EP and Funeral are excellent.

Reckon Neon Bible has some great songs, but it sounds absolutely horrific, terrible production choices on it that make it both totally overblown but also feel really stripped of life.

Think I listened to The Suburbs maybe twice and then havenā€™t had any inclination to listen to more beyond that.

3 Likes

Funeral -10
Neon Bible - 8
The Suburbs - 9
Reflektor - 6.5
Everything Now - 4

1 Like

Probably the best gig Iā€™ve ever been to:

9 Likes

Funeral is far and away their best album and I donā€™t even like it very much. Came out when I was at university, I was very much in the market for a new favourite band and I tried, really I did, butā€¦ nah. The first song is good. Neon Bible is largely dreck, saw them on that tour and they were dull, bought The Suburbs as I was still trying to like them and oooh, itā€™s a proper slog. I really wanted them to be great, I was rooting for them, but they were only ever disappointing to my ears.

Went back and listened to the Sprawl because people here are saying itā€™s good.
It is not good, had to turn it off. Makes me want to change my score to a 2. :confused:

1 Like

3/5 I played Funeral like mad at the time then didnā€™t like the follow up, much like everyone else.

Secures 3/5 because I really liked the single Everything Now even though the rest of the album was poor.

Think the length and sprawl of The Suburbs is part of what makes it so good. Would be a fundamentally different and worse album if it was a standard 10 track, 40-minute thing.

Their best, imo.

6 Likes

In spite of how disappointing I found both Reflektor and EN, they are still sensational live. Thereā€™s no other score I can give a band, that much fun, other than 5.

4 Likes

saw them on the neon bible tour when i was 14, like the 2nd or 3rd gig I ever went to and still one of the best.
Funeralā€™s still a really evocative record for me that stands up well when i go back to it. havenā€™t listened to NB or Suburbs in years but liked them both at the time.
think i only listened to reflektor once and didnā€™t even bother with the last one

I love the lyrics on the reprise of The Suburbs:

ā€œIf I could have it back
All the time that we wasted
Iā€™d only waste it againā€

Really simple, but incredibly evocative and stuff.

10 Likes

last 4 tracks of NB are brilliant actually, would make a perfect EP with that run + intervention and keep the car running. rest of the album is boring dirge

1 Like

Abstaining, only know 4 songs and they were all good (the one about cars, the power being out, lies and waking up?)