Noonday Dream
album by Ben Howard
Noonday Dream is the third album by the English singer-songwriter Ben Howard, released on 1 June 2018.
Critical reception
"Noonday Dream" has received generally favorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 80 based on 11 reviews. In a perfect review, Roisin O'Connor of The Independent says that "On [Noonday Dream], Howard expands the Cornish landscape that has impacted his previous work and brings in sounds and instruments that spark the imagination to places further afield, in the most exquisite way. Opener 'Nica Libres at Dusk' is a walk in shimmering heat, dust kicked from underfoot, with Howard’s voice singing dirge-like on the verses then drawn sweetly out like smoke from the cigars on the chorus; somehow evoking the soaring eagles depicted in the lyrics through a high whine on the electric guitar. 'The Defeat' features what sounds like a didgeridoo that thrums low beneath the clash of symbols and Howard’s lyrics contemplating: 'Where does the robber go, where does the robber go to repent?'". Sputnikmusic also gave the album a perfect score, saying that "[Noonday Dream is] Ben Howard doubling down on ambiance, creating a collage of moments both fleeting and everlasting while choosing the art of the craft over the simplest path to accolades. It may take more time to appreciate, but it’s a masterclass of songwriting that will likely dictate the future direction of his music." James Christopher Monger of AllMusic gave the album a 4-star review, saying that "Rolling in like fog on the Atlantic, the aptly named Noonday Dream is an inward-looking and unassuming batch of ambient folk songs that still manages to invoke huge vistas... the over seven-minute 'A Boat to an Island on the Wall,' with its murmuring ambient noises and occasional bursts of background conversation, would almost give off a Final Cut-era Pink Floyd vibe if it weren't so subtle, and the heartfelt and hazy 'Towing the Line' delivers one of Howard's most engaging melodies to date. Noonday Dream can feel ephemeral at times, but never is it unpleasant, even when it's fishing for emotional truth in unstable waters.
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