Places Like This
by Architecture In Helsinki

Album details

US: 21 August 2007 on Polyvinyl
UK: 13 August 2007 on Tailem Bend

It’s always a party when Australian six-piece Architecture In Helsinki release an album, and this short, self-produced third disc is no exception, blending an even larger number of styles than before into a typically quirky, bouncy whole. The band claims to have written the songs over IM, and the results certainly don’t render that an impossibility.

BUY THE CD:

The critical consensus

Much like Architecture In Helsinki’s music, the reviews for Places Like This are all over the map. "This is as effervescent and intoxicating as pop music gets," proclaims the BBC, just one of many fans of the eclectic Australian collective’s latest album. The Guardian also sees the album capable of "fill[ing] any dancefloor," while Gigwise calls it the "perfect summer soundtrack," and Lost At Sea declares, "Places Like This is right up there with the year’s best madcap adventures into dance and rock." Amazon finds nothing contrived about the band’s quirky formula, indicating that their "inventiveness always comes across as natural." Paste concludes that the fact they are "clearly having a wonderful time" saves the album from being "a self-congratulatory exercise in cross-cultural dabbling." Chart Attack labels the album "a delight from start to finish." And Under The Radar calls it "an experimental step forward for a forward-leaning experimental band."

Naturally, with music this odd, there are some detractors. Drowned In Sound, for example, finds Places "surprisingly one dimensional" and "flimsy," while Sputnik complains about the vocals and Uncut acknowledges that it can "grate" at times. BBC Collective likes some songs but dismisses others as "bizarre, vaguely ambient experimentation." Similarly, Crawdaddy likes individual moments within songs, but adds, "It’s rare that these individually memorable parts ever merge into something that is greater than, or even equal to, a sum of its parts," leaving an album that’s "fun but forgettable." Dotmusic calls AiH "inventive, brave and multi-disciplinarian but also bonkers, annoying and smug," while The Onion notes that, ironically, "Places feels far more like work than play." PopMatters finds Places inferior to In Case We Die, and says the new album "doesn’t live up to its potential." All Music Guide calls most of the album "a mystifying misfire," while Now Magazine is also a little confused, asking "What the shit is this?" and hearing only "an awkward mess of shrieking faux island riddims and embarrassing rump-shaking elasto-funk." Dusted claims that the only "way to have some fun with this album is to try to pick which song agitates the most." And it’s clear where No Ripcord stands; they call Places "an intolerable mess" that is an "inferior rehash" of past efforts.

There’s no doubt that fans of In Case We Die who were hoping for more of the same are going to be disappointed.

- Adam Bunch, PopMatters

Review roundup

Tracklisting and media

1. Red Turned White
2. Heart It Races
   
   
3. Hold Music
   
   
4. Feather In A Baseball Cap
5. Underwater
6. Like It Or Not
7. Debbie
8. Lazy (Lazy)
9. Nothing’s Wrong
10. Same Old Innocence

Also on the web

• Official Artist Site
• AiH @ MySpace