Beams

Pitchfork 7.3/10 Beams again finds the Detroit producer fully inhabiting his ink-black, hedonistic world and extends his run of strong vocal-oriented records.

A.V. Club C In the 13 years since his first single, “Hands Up For Detroit,” was released, Matthew Dear has taken his career in variety of directions. He’s recorded solo LPs under his own name and techno LPs as Audion, remixed acts like Spoon and The Postal Service, and philosophized musically about love, loss, and lonely…

The Line of Best Fit 7/10 Dear is leaving Gotham and heading to the country, and this album is the sound of an artist slowly edging out of the darkness and into the light.

DIY 4.5/5 An album that is warm and opening yet still dazzlingly inventive.

The Skinny 5/5 On Beams, Ghostly International founder Matthew Dear wears two of his strongest influences firmly on his sleeve. David Bowie and the Talking Heads loom large, in the louche, chopped punk-funk of tracks like Up & Out, the detuned space disco of Get The Rhyme Right, and in Dear's vocal performance, which has more than a hint of both later-period David Byrne and the Thin White Duke about it.

Under The Radar 7.5/10 Matthew Dear's artistic profile reads like a discarded verse from LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge,"

Clash 8/10 Sometimes you have to go backwards to move forwards.