★★★★★
Cate Le Bon may have traded Cardiff for the City of Angels, but one thing's for sure, the California sun hasn't brightened her disposition. On third LP
- www.austinchronicle.com
2014-03-13
★★★★★
Cate Le Bon -- Mug Museum (Turnstile)
Cate Le Bon opened her first album with the words "me oh my, my oh me," an exclamation delivered without exclamation. Three discs later, she's yet to raise her voice. Le Bon doesn't make big songs, but despite the measured delivery, her miniatures feel important. Taking motifs from British folk, bedsit indie, and garage rock, her songs mix with any of those genres without quite fitting...
- dustedmagazine.tumblr.com
2014-01-30
★★★★★
If there's a pencil museum in Keswick and a fan museum in Greenwich, it's believable that there would be a mug museum in Wales. And yet this imaginary place is just another strange pocket of the universe created by Welsh musician Cate Le Bon. This protege of Super Furry Animals singer Gruff Rhys once obsessed over dead animals, but her third album comes in the wake of the death of her maternal grandmother...
- www.beat.com.au
2013-12-10
★★★★★
Enigmatic young Welsh folkstress Cate Le Bon is often noticed more for her collaborative work, having appeared on the Neon Neon track 'I Lust You' and the latest LP from Manic Street Preachers, 'Rewind The Film'. (Clash review) 'Mug Museum' is going to change this, though. She'll become known as the Cate Le Bon who made this record, above anything else. It's that good, that much of a game-changer for its maker...
- www.clashmusic.com
2013-12-10
★★★★★
Tweet Schizophrenia at Its Finest The happy little notes that open Cate Le Bon's latest offering, Mug Museum, are not to be trusted. The Welsh crooner-ella, best known for moody songs and dark lyrics, may want you to think her perspective has changed, but as the chorus of "I Can't Help You" strikes a deliberately sour note and as she sings lyrics like "beat me like egg yolks," you know it's all an illusion. Mug Museum is like that: fun to listen to, dreary to listen to...
- www.mxdwn.com
2013-12-09
★★★★★
Previously best-known for herwork with Gruff Rhys andBoom Bip's Neon Neonproject, 2012's CRYK releasesaw Cate Le Bon establishherself as a solo artist of realpromise. That album'shomespun take on psychedeliais followed up by MugMuseum, recorded inCalifornia with producer NoahGeorgeson (Joanna Newsom,Bert Jansch) and the help ofa few friends (White Denim,Sweet Baboo).
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-12-06
★★★★★
When Cate Le Bon announced earlier this year that she was packing up her red dragon bindle and forsaking the magical valleys of Ye Olde "Land of Our Fathers" (i.e. Wales) for the exorbitant glamour and glitz of sunny Los Angeles, it was hard not to sigh with weary resignation. Another rising soul swallowed whole by La La Land soon to reappear as another plastic fantastic puppet on parade, likely botoxed up with glow-in-the-dark chompers, lipsynching to some horrific EDM/folk hybrid whilst...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-11-26
★★★★★
It's been nearly two years since Cate Le Bon released her sophomore full-length album, CYRK, and in that time the chanteuse has stripped the remainder of her upbringing from her music. Raised in a Welsh farmhouse, there has always been a vowel-less sense of innocence and countryside twang to Le Bon's work. With CYRK, we heard the avant-pop songstress delve into psychedelia while holding onto a playful, familiar ambiance...
- filtermagazine.com
2013-11-19
★★★★★
Welsh songwriter Cate Le Bon returns, less than two years removed from her triumphant Cyrk. There's a dreamy, gauzy feel in many of the record's 10 tracks; Le Bon's recent relocation to sunny California--Mug Museum was recorded in Los Angeles--could have a lot to do with it. "No God" is embodied by a strong, rolling bass line and high-gain guitar; "Mirror Me" floats on faint, feverish church organ and sluggish, thumping drums...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2013-11-16