The Fool

by 
AlbumOct 25 / 20109 songs, 47m 17s
Dream Pop Neo-Psychedelia
Popular Highly Rated

Warpaint — contrary to what the name conjures — is a four-piece all- female band based in L.A., and *The Fool* is their debut full-length, following a 2009 EP titled *Exquisite Corpse*. Staying the course with their goth-tinged psychedelic folk, *The Fool* is a beautiful tapestry of dusky, hazy tunes that deliver on mood rather than real hooks. Opening track “Set Your Arms Down” may be an anti-war screed, or a narcoticized plea to a feuding lover, but either way it envelops the listener like smoke, difficult to nail down when the track ends. Full of solemn, effects-heavy bass lines, wispy, reverb-wrapped vocals and languid, sleepy rhythms, *The Fool* captures the mood of several genres in one swoop, including genteel singer-songwriter ambience (“Baby,” “Shadows”), which shows a fearless skill for cross-pollinating. Lovely.

7.2 / 10

L.A. art-rock quartet's debut LP is a nine-song seance of an album that's as subtle as it is disquieting.

B

Despite all evidence to the contrary over the past 30 years, post-punk doesn’t have to be built out of cold, sharp angles. The Fool, the full-length debut by Los Angeles’ Warpaint, coasts instead on a humid, hazy, oozing pulse that’s less ice age and more malarial swamp. With a torpid and feverish dreaminess, the…

6 / 10

8.0 / 10

For a band who has just released their first record, Warpaint sound absolutely exhausted. “I’m afraid, I’m drunk and I’m…

Check out our album review of Artist's The Fool on Rolling Stone.com.

7 / 10

Six years of upheavals precede this debut album, finding the band back to being exclusively female.

10 / 10

7 / 10

Run for the hills! They're coming! Forget the cat, the car and the kids just bloody run! Leggit! Save yourself! Get off the grid! Change your name to...

<strong>Maddy Costa</strong> is mesmerised by the sensuality of Warpaint's debut album

90 %

86 %

4.0 / 5

Warpaint - The Fool review: Shimmering psychedelic post-punk to get lost into.