Sheath (album)

Last updated

Sheath
Lfo sheath.jpg
Studio album by
LFO
Released22 September 2003 (2003-09-22) [1]
Genre IDM
Length46:47
Label Warp
Producer Mark Bell
LFO chronology
Advance
(1996)		Sheath
(2003)
Singles from Sheath
  1. "Freak"
    Released: 25 August 2003 [2]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 73/100 [3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Alternative Press Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
BBC favorable [6]
Billboard favorable [7]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [8]
The Observer Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [9]
Pitchfork 7.3/10 [10]
Playlouder Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [12]
Stylus Magazine B [13]

Sheath is the third and final studio album by British IDM project LFO. It was released by Warp on 22 September 2003. It peaked at number 27 on the UK Independent Albums Chart. [14]

Contents

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Sheath received an average score of 73% based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [3]

John Bush of AllMusic gave the album 4 stars out of 5 and called Mark Bell "the most imaginative producer in British techno." [4] Dominique Leone of Pitchfork gave the album a 7.3 out of 10, writing, "Bell's strength seems to reside in his softer sides that fools me into thinking his more extroverted outings are lacking." [10]

Paul Sullivan of BBC wrote, "the album manages to re-capture some of the original pioneering spirit that made Frequencies such a tour-de-force." [6] Joshua Klein of Billboard said, "The drum machines sound delightfully (if deceptively) rinky-dink, and the absence of vocalists keeps the focus on the beats and occasionally cacophonous sonic clutter." [7]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Blown"6:02
2."Mum-Man"3:40
3."Mokeylips"4:02
4."Snot"2:55
5."Moistly"4:12
6."Unafraid to Linger"4:35
7."Sleepy Chicken"3:58
8."Freak"4:13
9."Mummy, I've Had an Accident..."5:02
10."Nevertheless"3:50
11."Premacy"3:22
Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Millionaire Dogs"1:53
13."Butterslut"5:00

Uses in media

The track “Freak” is notable for being featured on the opening credits for Gaspar Noé’s 2009 film Enter the Void and David Slade’s 2005 film Hard Candy. [15]

Charts

ChartPeak
position
UK Independent Albums (OCC) [14] 27

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References

  1. ↑ "Sheath". Warp . Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "Freak". Warp . Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Sheath by LFO". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  4. 1 2 Bush, John. "Sheath - LFO". AllMusic . Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  5. ↑ LFO executes these retro moves with flamboyance and subtlety, so we can forgive Bell his derivativeness. [Nov 2003, p.118]
  6. 1 2 Sullivan, Paul (2003). "LFO - Sheath - Review". BBC . Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  7. 1 2 Klein, Joshua (3 September 2003). "LFO, "Sheath"". Billboard . Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  8. ↑ Some of it hisses and gurgles like early Future Sound Of London. [Oct 2003, p.118]
  9. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (21 September 2003). "LFO, Sheath". The Observer . Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  10. 1 2 Leone, Dominique (12 November 2003). "LFO: Sheath". Pitchfork . Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  11. ↑ Moffat, Iain (18 September 2003). "LFO: Sheath (2003)". Playlouder . Archived from the original on 20 November 2006. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  12. ↑ Bell has an instinctive feel for sound but, as Freak's teeth-grinding acid house nostalgia underlines, he won't find a new audience with this. [Oct 2003, p.108]
  13. ↑ D'Cruz, Matt (2 October 2003). "LFO - Sheath". Stylus Magazine . Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  14. 1 2 "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50: 28 September 2003 - 04 October 2003". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "LFO - List of Songs heard in Movies & TV Shows". WhatSong. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
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