★★★★★
Sound: This might on, first glance, seem to have been "done before". The Pogues and Dropkick Murphies both mixed celtic folk with popular rock'n'roll. Acoustic guitars backing up distorted licks was the very recipe for the alt-rock power ballads of the '90s. But Carbon Leaf have more tricks than these up their sleeves, my friend. Both country, Bryan Adams-flavoured pop-rock and '60s folk-rock (particularly Simon and Garfunkel) have been mixed into this astonishing album...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2012-04-12
★★★★★
Sound: On Carbon Leaf's website you can listen to a couple select songs from the album, but when I first found out that if you preordered this album you culd listen to it online I went on amazon right away. This is definitely the most mainstream of any of Carbon Leaf's albums, which is a step forward. The album has a nice shiny polished sound to it, which is much different than their other albums...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2009-11-15
★★★★★
The acoustic alt-country of Carbon Leaf has done nothing to set them apart from other like-sounding artists, but on their third Vanguard release, Nothing Rhymes With Woman, the band shows not only how to make some of the best music in the genre, but also how to get lost in the pack.The mid-tempo opener "Indecision" is a perfect beginner as it creates the perfect balance of country and contemporary pop and showcases just how good the band can be...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
Carbon Leaf's rise to national prominence has taken some time. Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat is the band's seventh album, and follows their major label debut, Indian Summer, which spawned the hit, "Life Less Ordinary."However, it's clearly been worth the wait because this is an enduring collection of well-written pop-rock songs with the trademark melodies and vocals that have come to characterise the Richmond, VA four-piece...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
If you're familiar with Richmond, Virginia's Carbon Leaf and their albums spanning back to 1995, then you're probably aware of their tours with Dave Matthews Band, David Gray, and Guster. If you're uninitiated, and you happen upon their latest, Indian Summer, then that fact will be of absolutely no surprise. It's possessed of the same radio-approved hooks, lilting choruses, "eclectic" arrangements, and overall mediocrity that plague sensitive jangly bands everywhere...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-21
★★★★★
If you're familiar with Richmond, Virginia's Carbon Leaf and their albums spanning back to 1995, then you're probably aware of their tours with Dave Matthews Band, David Gray, and Guster. If you're uninitiated, and you happen upon their latest, Indian Summer, then that fact will be of absolutely no surprise. It's possessed of the same radio-approved hooks, lilting choruses, "eclectic" arrangements, and overall mediocrity that plague sensitive jangly bands everywhere...
- www.popmatters.com
2008-11-11
★★★★★
Carbon Leaf returns from Richmond, VA, with their follow-up album, Shadows in the Banquet Hall. The lyrics are often complex in this collection and are challenging to catch on first listen, so it's good that they include the words with the CD. Listeners will find some cuts, like "Reunion Monticello," a lot more comprehensible when they read the lyrics as they play the song...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Pitched somewhere between John Mayer's earnestness and the genial hacky-sack-on-the-quad pop of the Dave Matthews Band, Carbon Leaf have made it to their seventh album on an abundance of sunny good vibes and a relative paucity of genuinely interesting musical ideas. Produced by British pure-pop master Peter Collins (responsible for hits by everyone from Tracey Ullman to Bon Jovi), Love Loss Hope Repeat is utterly faultless AAA-radio pop...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
★★★★★
Celtic and jam band aesthetics merge to create a meandering, somewhat monochromatic impression throughout this live double-CD set. The first is the lesser element; emerald accoutrements pop up rarely in these largely acoustic mixes, and when they do they seem more decorative than essential. It would be easy, for example, to erase the prominent tin whistle part in "Wandrin' Around" without substantially affecting the song's integrity or impact...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-27
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