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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Similes
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Album Info
Label: Temporary Residence
Release Date: 23 February 2010
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Ambient, Electronic
Summary
Heavily influenced by neoclassical icons like Erik Satie and Philip Glass, the experimental musician Eluvium (aka Matthew Cooper) is set to release Similes. It's an eight-song album featuring three key musical elements: percussion, a verse-chorus song structure, and singing.
Also By This Artist: Copia
Also On The Web: Last.fm Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
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...
PopMatters
never has he put together something as perfectly formed and structured as this. It’s a journey from the inside out; it slowly unravels its form until the pieces are mere threads, floating in the breeze.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
What ultimately makes Similes so wonderful is that with every listen it seems to peel away the world around you, immersing you in its warmth, and for 43 minutes, it makes it so hard to believe that everything that might be wrong in your life actually matters at all.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
What’s happening with Similes is that it’s doing everything ambient music is supposed to do but is finding a very forward and fresh manner of going about it.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Simplistic, yet imaginative, Similes provides a hypnotic and surreal soundscape suitable for both daydreaming and nightdreaming.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
What’s more notable, and important, though, are the continuities present here. Not just in instrumentation and mood, but also in those things’ presence in Cooper’s newest weapon: words.
Read Full Review >Urb
With Similes, he has re-grounded himself using surprisingly un-ambient means: plaintive vocal turns, steady human percussion, traditional and discernible instrumentation
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
[The] expansive and slightly melancholy tone which has always been at the core of his music does feel slightly constrained when he tries to squeeze it into a verse chorus verse structure: the best moments on Similes come when he simply lets it wander free.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
For those who have followed his recording career for any length of time, this change might seem jarring, a small revolution, but when his hushed baritone arrives on the scene in the lead track "Leaves Eclipse the Light," the development sounds completely natural.
Read Full Review >BBC Music
But it’s not float-away, background material; these songs poke and prod while clasping you close, the embrace warm but never completely comfortable.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Much of Similes is more standard, wordless Eluvium fare: the rumbling piano-based "In Culmination", the slow-burning "Nightmare 5" and "Bending Dream", and most of all the long, flickering closer "Cease to Know".
Read Full Review >Sputnikmusic
Similes is, while a pretty record, oddly disjointed, a collection of pretty chord changes without an identity to give it life.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
His mid-year gamble may not have paid off fully, but his textured worlds remain fruitful. [Winter 2010, p.68]
Uncut
By the time the 11-minute whalesong finale "Cease To Know" creeps to its overdue conclusion, the prevailing mood of impeccably tasteful introspection is choking. [May 2010, p.88]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
