A Billion Little Lights | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 19, 2021 | |||
Length | 41:19 | |||
Label | Royal Mountain | |||
Producer | David Greenbaum | |||
Wild Pink chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from A Billion Little Lights | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 6.6/10 [1] |
Metacritic | 71/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Beats Per Minute | 82% [3] |
Exclaim! | 7/10 [4] |
The Line of Best Fit | 6/10 [5] |
Loud and Quiet | 7/10 [6] |
MusicOMH | [7] |
Pitchfork | 7.6/10 [8] |
A Billion Little Lights is the third studio album by American indie rock band Wild Pink. It was released on February 19, 2021 under Royal Mountain Records. [9]
On October 7, 2020, Wild Pink announced the release of their third studio album, along with the first single "The Shining But Tropical". [9] In a press release, the band's lead vocalist John Ross explained the single: "It was inspired by Carl Sagan’s Cosmos as well as "If I Needed You" by Townes Van Zandt, this song is named for a grim retirement home in Florida. It’s about somebody who was born sheltered realising how large the world is and how unimportant they are." [10]
The second single "You Can Have It Back" was released on November 20, 2020, which also features Ratboys' lead vocalist Julia Steiner. [11] Ross noted the single was the last song written for the album, explaining the single was inspired by Fleetwood Mac. [12]
The third single "Oversharers Anonymous" was released on January 14, 2021. [13] Of the single, John Ross said: "This is one of the first songs I wrote for A Billion Little Lights and was inspired, among many things, by Ken Burns’ The West and the book The Earth Is Weeping by Peter Cozzens. Also inspired by a drive on the Taconic Parkway. Recording everyone’s parts on the outro was one of my favorite parts of making this album." [14]
On February 16, 2021, Wild Pink released the fourth single "Pacific City". [15]
A Billion Little Lights was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 71 based on 8 reviews. [2] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the release 6.6 out of 10 based on a critical consensus of 7 reviews. [1]
Writing for Beats Per Minute , John Amen wrote "Brimful of elegant melodies and John Ross’s euphonic vocals, the album’s 10 tracks also feature riveting instrumental undergirds – alternately minimal and lush, succinct and sprawling, earthy and psychedelic. Wild Pink’s third full length sees them at their most fluent, achieving a compositional and performative apex." [3] Chris Gee of Exclaim! wrote "While A Billion Little Lights as a whole is not as elegantly cohesive as Wild Pink's past work, the starry-eyed melodies shine stronger and more confidently than ever. The band's dreamy sentimental detailing and lustrous guitar work is as easily digestible as it is thought-provoking as the layers peel back into both nothing and everything at once." [4]
All tracks are written by John Ross
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Wind Was Like a Train" | 2:38 |
2. | "Bigger Than Christmas" | 5:04 |
3. | "The Shining but Tropical" | 4:52 |
4. | "Amalfi" | 4:17 |
5. | "Oversharers Anonymous" | 4:50 |
6. | "You Can Have It Back" | 3:23 |
7. | "Family Friends" | 3:53 |
8. | "Track Mud" | 4:23 |
9. | "Pacific City" | 3:58 |
10. | "Die Outside" | 4:01 |
Total length: | 41:19 |
Wild Pink
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