From The Valley To The Stars Image

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics What's this?

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Mixed or average reviews- based on 8 Ratings

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  • Summary: This is the sophomore album for Swedish singer Sarah Assbring.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. So, if you're with indie-pop’s backward-gazing contingent, or if you prefer it when ‘achingly beautiful’ actually aches, or if you want an example of style-versus-substance as a false dilemma--then get this record.
  2. 80
    On first listen, this follow-up is less impressive, but subtle melodies soon sugar the melancholy of 'Glory to the Owlrd' and 'Happiness Won Me over.' [June 2008, p.100]
  3. With From the Valley to the Stars, El Peroo del Mar has not only avoided the sophomore slump that plauges so many singer/songwriters, she may have even passed the triumph of her debut. [Spring 2008, p.75]
  4. It is very beautiful, ethereally so, its chanted, chiming vocals wafting over multilayered instrumental tracks as delicate and intricately constructed as lace.... Despite that, the 16 songs together lack variety, one drifting into another, the overall mood too solemn and somnolent.
  5. From The Valley To The Stars is simply a collection of mostly good and occasionally great songs that just doesn’t quite work as a whole.
  6. 60
    The rolling melodies, stately pace and closed-miked, out of phase vocals result in an off-kilter whole, tempered by contributions from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. [July 2008, p.111]
  7. Serene but emotionally flat, Valley feels like too much church on a cold Sunday afternoon.

See all 18 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 4
  2. Negative: 3 out of 4
  1. HotTub
    May 30, 2008
    First record is pretty solid. This one is not pretty solid.
  2. PabloH.
    Sep 5, 2008
    No recommendable.
  3. AlérianF.
    Sep 5, 2008
    For being so sad this woman gets a beastly sound, the melodies are not so bad and the lyrics pure trash from a rich kid who suffer too much, where are the angels? Expand
  4. RodrigoA.
    Sep 5, 2008
    So boring, so aching, so fake, so stupid... it´s not a nothing. I heard all album and feel a lot of untrue feelings.