★★★★★
Tweet This Whale Says Little Lead by dual guitarists/vocalists Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft, not much could be written about Hawaiii than what could be written about many other albums by bands released in the last week, month or year. It is the fourth studio album by the Canadian indie band Said the Whale, and although the band is tight and well produced, it also feels very safe, especially for a group who should be more confident in experimenting with their sound...
- www.mxdwn.com
2013-09-29
★★★★★
Said the Whale are the living embodiment of Canadian indie rock. The Vancouver, BC quintet have penned a host of light, bouncy tunes with just the right hint of sentimentality over three full-lengths, climbing to the top of the country's indie-pop heap. Yet, on their latest album, singer/guitarist Tyler Bancroft sounds restless. On "Mother," he sings, "maybe I should fuck something up good," suggesting the band are looking to break out of the box they created...
- exclaim.ca
2013-09-14
★★★★★
Said The Whale's latest EP is a collection of summertime songs that could have been the soundtrack to your high school romance - assuming your fling involved frolicking on beaches, taking your parents' car on joyrides or getting to first base at the drive-in. The songs are flirty but so G-rated that even the best lyrics are dulled by all the saccharine sweetness. The Vancouver-based band formed in 2007, when Canadian indie rock was in its heyday...
- nowtoronto.com
2013-06-06
★★★★★
In the 1960s, central planners in the Soviet Union established "science cities" where experts in various disciplines were gathered in a bid to supercharge society's technological progress. Much more recently in the other vast northerly expanse that is Canada, fully-fledged music scenes have popped up quite naturally and very nearly as quickly, producing in place of supercomputers and nuclear reactors a seemingly endless stream of quality pop and rock records...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-05-14
★★★★★
This is the third LP for last year's recipient of the Juno for Best New Group of the Year, in which Said the Whale look beyond their native Vancouver, extending their sounds and lyricism to reach further horizons, like on the geographically themed Big Sky, MT and on the power-pop number Jesse, AR. The songwriting on Little Mountain feels more ambitious, less naive, as on Big Wave Goodbye, an epic-sounding Beatlesque affair that concludes in a cathartic mess of horns and guitars...
- hour.ca
2012-03-15
★★★★★
Most bands' best work has hints of naiveté that are near impossible to duplicate on subsequent releases. Said the Whale's breakthrough, Islands Disappear, certainly fits this category. And while third album Little Mountain lacks its predecessor's sense of innocence, the Vancouver, BC quintet's latest still hits all the right notes...
- exclaim.ca
2012-03-06
★★★★★
For anyone who fell in love with Said the Whale's sophomore record, Islands Disappear, first spins of their new four-track EP will come as a bit of a shock. While that album's specificity of place is what drew many in, New Brighton refuses to saddle any of its songs with a set location. But if the novelty of hearing the changing landscape of Vancouver's False Creek set music was all Islands Disappear had going for it, the record would never have been the slow burning sensation it was...
- exclaim.ca
2011-12-12
★★★★★
Music and geography have always enjoyed something of a bountiful relationship. The planet we inhabit provides endless highways for touring musicians to ply their craft, but there's so much more. Those endless highways eventually give way to lush scenery, bustling metropolis and quaint small towns all the same. Every piece of Earth musicians trek across provides a seemingly endless supply of inspiration, so much so that one can't help but imagine music without geography...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-01-20
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