★★★★★
Rhett Miller has taken great care in the last decade to keep his solo albums and those recorded with his rowdier, more country-influenced band the Old 97?s as two distinctly separate bodies of work. When not flanked by his alt-country bandmates, Miller embraces his more sumptuous and orchestral tendencies, often veering closer to the chamber-pop largesse of artists like Rufus Wainwright or Andrew Bird...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
The difference between Rhett Miller the solo artist and Rhett Miller the singer for the Old 97's is subtle. A turn toward a more twang-infused sound on his sixth solo disc makes the distinction even more elusive. Readily apparent is that his work away from the band tends toward the delicate, a folk-pop blend with the occasional, undeniably ingenious couplet that's become his trademark. This time it's "She had a prominent nose, she took off all her clothes" from "Sleepwalkin'...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2012-07-16
★★★★★
The release of Rhett Miller's fourth solo outing The Dreamer closely coincides with a similarly-minded LP: John Mayer's pseudo-rootsy Born and Raised. Both find artists taking humbler approaches to their music, without any grandiose experimentation or theatrics. They are also, to some extent, "country" records, though Born and Raised is more 70's California rock than country, and The Dreamer sticks to the alt-country Miller is so familiar with...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-07-12
★★★★★
Rhett Miller is not cool. One might think he is, for a minute, because he's really fucking good looking, and he has a good haircut, and the Old 97's were kind of cool back in the '90s before their shows were stocked with dads. But you would be wrong. Rhett Miller is earnest, cheerful, friendly; married and forty-ish, prone to waxing metaphorical about love...
- www.cokemachineglow.com
2012-06-18
★★★★★
Rhett Miller's solo career actually goes back farther than his nearly two decades as frontman for the Old 97's. The songwriter's 1989 debut Mythologies is a pubescent preamble to Stewart Ransom Miller's future "serial lady killer" status immortalized in the 97's classic "Barrier Reef." It's an unassuming, yet promising, record that has achieved more cult status than being seen as any sort of lost gem. Another 13 years would pass before Miller released his next solo album The Instigator in 2002...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2012-06-07
★★★★★
The latest solo album from the Old 97's frontman is unabashed power pop. Miller has grown into an impressive songwriter, and the well-crafted gems here rank with his finest work, ranging from some giddy rockers to the poignant title ballad, which is about Elliott Smith.
- kexp.org
2012-05-21
★★★★★
The sixth solo album from the Old 97's frontman is his most rootsy solo release and also one of his best. With Miller producing his own record for the first time and using his solo road band The Serial Lady Killers, the album has a warm, intimate sound with acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel, occasional piano and female harmony vocals from Rachel Yamagata, Heather Robb or Rosanne Cash fleshing out Miller's smartly crafted songs.
- kexp.org
2012-05-21
★★★★★
Best known as the frontman for alt-country stalwarts Old 97's, Rhett Miller has been unassumingly making great music for about 18 years now. An adept songwriter whose keen mind illuminates the plight of various hard-luck lost souls with clever word play and deft turns of phrase, Miller makes a strong first impression, with songs burrowing themselves into your psyche and staying there for long periods of time...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-01-26
★★★★★
I've always wanted to make it to Largo, the L.A...
- www.ink19.com
2012-01-05