The Century of Self
| The Century of Self | ||||
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| Studio album by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead | ||||
| Released | February 17, 2009 | |||
| Recorded | 2008 at Bubble Studios, Austin, Texas | |||
| Genre | Art rock | |||
| Length | 53:28 | |||
| Label | Richter Scale Records Justice Records |
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| Producer | Mike McCarthy | |||
| ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (68/100) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| The A.V. Club | A− |
| Entertainment Weekly | B− |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.8/10) |
| PopMatters |
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| Rolling Stone |
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| Slant Magazine |
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| Spin | (8/10) |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |
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| USA Today |
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The Century of Self is the sixth album by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.
This is the first full-length release from Trail of Dead after their Interscope contract. It is also a departure from their studio production style:
"On the last two albums, we were really meticulous recording to click-tracks and doing overdubs...This time, we threw all that out. We learned the songs and all tracked [them] live."
To promote the album, a music video for the radio edit of "Isis Unveiled" was released in April 2009.
It is the last studio album to feature co-founder and guitarist Kevin Allen.
Album art for The Century of Self was done entirely in blue ballpoint pen by singer Conrad Keely.
On Metacritic, The Century of Self has been given a score of 68 out of 100 based on "generally favorable reviews." Clashmusic.com, the online arm of Clash magazine, gave it a positive review and commented:
"The Century of Self is an album with an accomplished sense of completion – a rolling score of disparate tracks segueing into a focused, poignant collective. And for all its scintillating, visceral energy, it’s an album that remains poised and impending, balanced by majestic composition and a patient anticipation for demolishing everything it builds."
The Fly magazine, meanwhile, awarded the record February's Album of the Month and gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that "The Century of Self underlines why they remain one of the world's most vital, daring and ambitious rock bands." Conrad Keely provided an exclusive illustration to go with The Fly's review, as well as an exclusive track-by-track analysis of the album in The Skinny ahead of its release. The Skinny also gave it four stars out of five and called it "an album that may not get a perfect score, but reaffirms Trail of Dead’s role as rock’s dark trailblazers."Gigwise.com gave the album all five stars and said, "It has masterpiece written all over it."
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Wikipedia