Haha Sound - Broadcast

Universal acclaim - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Negative: 1 out of 23
  1. Haha Sound may not be Broadcast's most superficially perfect album, but it's a more challenging and exciting one because of its deliberate imperfections.
  2. HaHa Sound's biggest flaw is its total lack of immediacy.
  4. 90
    In a world supersaturated with electronica, Broadcast are nonetheless bold, rare and crucial. [Sep 2003, p.97]
  5. Overall this is brain music of remarkable potency. [Aug 2003, p.102]
  6. 80
    Ha Ha Sound reveals that the band still have a penchant for 3/4 time, still transcend their cinematic influences effortlessly, and Trish Keenan still conjures wondrous lyrical evocations of unspecific tenderness and yearning. [Aug 2003, p.98]
  7. Broadcast invokes the spacier reaches of Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, but Haha Sound is a retrofit well-tailored enough to wear a cloak of its own.
  8. Broadcast might be the most fully realized electronic band out there. [#5, p.105]
  9. Trish Keenan's woozy vocals conjure cloudy dreamscapes, and the music will leave you feeling vaguely fashionable, the same way that Stereolab's sophisticated synth work does. [15 Aug 2003, p.76]
  10. Every note, every lyric, is perfect.
  11. A bewitching fusion of orchestral prettiness and exploratory electronics. [Aug 2003, p.108]
  12. It seems that with HaHa Sound, Broadcast is subtly developing a personal aesthetic, assimilating all that comes across their path but rarely allowing the elements to overwhelm their on ideas.
  13. 80
    Never anything less than enthralling. [Sep 2003, p.121]
  14. Ha Ha Sound is occasionally brilliant, often adequate and, on some tracks, so bizarrely irritating that the mind boggles at who Broadcast imagine would actually be interested in hearing them. So, in summation, an almost essential album of largely inessential tracks.
  15. It's certainly very cleverly composed and constructed but ultimately sounds aloof and impenetrable and, as a result, somewhat devoid of emotion.
  16. Haha Sound’s music is always competent, and often worthy of Broadcast’s debut album, but it’s disconcerting to see a band repeat a simple formula with such devotion.
  17. Juggles multiple ideas of modernism with unusual grace and success. [#234, p.53]
  18. Not, perhaps, the hugest of leaps from 'The Noise Made By People', granted, but that album, fine though it was, was very much parking on specific continental territory; 'Ha Ha Sound', by contrast, feels like it wants to explore somewhere more bearingless.
  19. HaHa Sound is a good example what a talented band can do in an era of infinite possibilities.
  20. This whole is a sum of 14 songs that adds up to an estimable artistic much, the kind of album worthy of nestling in for months.
  21. Although the music of the group has taken quite a few strides forward, it is also once again the voice of Trish Keenan that holds everything together.
  22. While all of the sounds that made their debut so compelling are in place here, Broadcast has also branched out, employing a looser approach to strong structure.
  23. 100
    Ha Ha Sound is the sort of album that will sweetly move you towards slumber. [#23, p.82]
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Oct 3, 2011
    Haha Sound is considered Broadcastâ
  2. JimB
    Mar 27, 2005
    Slightly stronger than their superb debut. "Ha-Ha Sound" is my favourite album of 2003. "Before We Begin" is beautiful;the album's best track,among other excellent ones. Full Review »
  3. ScottC
    Sep 2, 2004
    The best LP of the year bar none! Their best material to date..get it!