Nixon

Rolling Stone (3/2/00, p.99) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...They're a little bit o' twang with a pinch of soul, a mini-orchestra that plays with the attitude of Salvation Army buskers and the chops of an indie-rock band....both profound and affectingly universal..." Spin (5/00, p.158) - 9 out of 10 - "...Music that gently rattles the heavens....simple homilies...with so much beauty that they don't suggest a forgotten, mythical America so much as an overlooked workaday one..." Q (1/01, p.93) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000". Q (3/00, p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...accessible, clever and full of a rare integrity." Uncut (p.104) - "All serious stuff, but the genius of Lambchop -- perfected here -- is the way the melodies rub balm into the pain." Uncut (p.102) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "What was ravishing in every detail 10 years ago is ravishing still." Uncut (3/00, pp.73-4) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...NIXON is unequivocally the best example so far of what it is that they do that makes them so unique....One of the first great records of the new millennium..." Alternative Press (5/00, p.93) - 3 out of 5 - "...Fascinating....drawing on the everyday minutiae that informed their previous LP's..." Magnet (4-5/00, p.80) - "...NIXON is eccentric, exuberant and, ultimately, essential..." CMJ (2/14/00, p.18) - "...booms with disco-tinged violin suites and a few genuinely funkified R&B numbers alongside understated and sinisterly clever tunes that are Wagner's trademark....interesting and playful..." Melody Maker (2/8/00, p.47) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...consolidates mainman Kurt Wagner's position as one of the most innovative artists around..." No Depression (3-4/00, p.112) - "...NIXON is wired up with primemoving, vintage Gibson guitar rendering Kurt Wagner's own version of country music....Lambchop try to constrain their smiles and just wink, but instrumentally they're as serious as thirteen heart attacks..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] restless masterpiece, 'The Old Gold Shoe' and 'Grumpus' tracing Wagner's strangely off-beat diurnal rhythms..." Mojo (Publisher) (2/00, p.91) - "...[Kurt Wagner's] most romantic songs to date and also some of his bleakest....It's [Lambchop's] most fully realised record, the most perfect blend of their alt country roots and their obsession with soul..." NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.78) - Ranked #13 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". NME (Magazine) (2/5/00, p.28) - 9 out of 10 - "...their greatest album....an astonishing work....an alt-country PET SOUNDS....a swooning wonder, covered in glory." Pitchfork (Website) - "NIXONis still an improbable album. The band never sounds like they're trying very hard and yet every song breaks some convention or another."