 | Son Lux At War With Walls And Mazes
3.7
great
| Ranking: #47 for 2008 | |
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| | Full Review | Ratings (106) |
Give your Rating |
| 2.0 poor | Iai EMERITUS | March 24th 08 |
Despite all the effort Son Lux has clearly put in to make this an interesting listen, At War With Walls and Mazes is a completely unremarkable album. It's almost as if a good cartoonist decided to draw a comic strip with absolutely no storyline, character development, or action - this may well be impressive on first glance, and God knows Ryan Lott has done his homework as far as production and genre goes, but there's nothing here beneath the surface. There's no appreciation of songcraft, passion, or context - the good ideas that he has are left marooned by the fact that he spent way too much time on being interesting and not enough time on actually making music. Another disappointing release from the most reliably disappointing label in the world right now.
3 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.5 superb | 204409 EMERITUS | March 15th 08 |
Our top album here at Sputnikmusic was Burial's Untrue. That album had a distinctively sparse, brittle tone to its atmosphere. Other than that though I found the album almost unlistenably boring. Imagine taking that one cool aspect of that album and fleshing it out in all regards. Then you'd have Son Lux's At War With Walls & Mazes, an album that blends a variety of genres and production techniques to create a glitchy, high personalized, trip hop masterpiece. At War With Walls & Mazes is a strong contender for album of the year. It is the best electronic release since Venetian Snares' Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett. It is nearly flawless, and the scary thing about all of this praise is that it's only Son Lux's debut album.
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.0 good | didnt ask to be staff, was made staff anyway, then got demoted for not doing staff stuff | February 26th 21 |
On 'At War With Walls And Mazes' Son Lux display most of what will later go on to define their soundcraft, but also leaves a lot to be desired in song-writing. The excellent parts and ideas are indeed on the level and deserve all their praise, no question about that. Then again, and especially in the context of their incredible improvement with each following record, the album is not substantive and mostly drags as a result of its disparate structures.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | P13 | March 17th 08 |
This is like a very well thought out version of De Facto, but better. Emotional and catchy. The tempos and time signatures really give it a feeling of either happy, sad, jumpy etc. Every song has a very unique face and it is all very pleasing to the ear. Excellent.
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 4.0 excellent | Alabaster Jones | January 5th 15 |
Son Lux is quickly becoming recognized as one of the up-and-comers of trip-hop, and his debut, At War With Walls And Mazes gives a perfect example of why. While the album does get off to a bit of a slow start, the middle has some great songs like "Betray", "Stay", and "Raise". "Wither" is without a doubt the catchiest song on the record, but "Stand" really steals the show. Though the song consists of one line being repeated, so many things happen around that line, such as soaring female vocals and whirling violins. The use of strings on this album gives a breath of fresh air to many of the songs, and give it an experimental feel to it on occasion. Though the album suffers on its slower, more subdued tracks, it is incredible everywhere else, and for that, Son Lux's debut surely deserves a listen from trip-hop fans and fans of electronic in general.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | Krpa | March 1st 19 |
| 3.0 good | bmelt | July 2nd 18 |
| 4.0 excellent | Keira | February 10th 18 |
| 3.5 great | clavier EMERITUS | February 2nd 18 |
| 4.5 superb | gilly | January 29th 18 |
| 3.0 good | Xerian | March 20th 17 |
| 4.5 superb | Copper | September 11th 15 |
| 4.5 superb | TwigTW | June 21st 14 |
| 3.0 good | benhxc | September 7th 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | Kman418 | April 27th 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | balazs | February 8th 13 |
| 3.0 good | Rail | January 24th 13 |
| 4.0 excellent | Spec | February 8th 12 |
| 4.0 excellent | Rev | November 7th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | Smevin | November 5th 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | cuki92 | August 23rd 11 |
| 4.0 excellent | mcsolar | June 10th 10 |
| 2.5 average | Amaya | September 9th 09 |
| 4.5 superb | AlKal | December 21st 08 |
| 4.0 excellent | PhillyD | November 22nd 08 |
| 4.5 superb | natey | October 8th 08 |
| 3.0 good | Zoo | May 26th 08 |
| 2.5 average | RedSky | April 29th 08 |
| 4.0 excellent | donovr | March 17th 08 |
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