The Visitor (Jim O'Rourke album)

The Visitor is an instrumental album by American musician Jim O'Rourke. It was released on Drag City in 2009 on CD and LP, but not digitally by O'Rourke's request. O'Rourke played every instrument on the album, and it was all recorded in his home in Tokyo. It marks his first proper studio album in eight years since Insignificance, released in 2001, and is intended to be a continuation of that album, Eureka, and Bad Timing.

The Visitor
Studio album by
Jim O'Rourke
ReleasedSeptember 8, 2009
Recorded2009
GenreIndie rock
Length38:03
LabelDrag City
ProducerJim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke chronology
Halfway to a Threeway
(1999)		 The Visitor
(2009)		 Simple Songs
(2015)

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic73/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Beats per Minute90%[3]
Consequence of SoundA+[4]
Fact9/10[5]
The List[6]
Mojo[1]
Pitchfork8.3/10[7]
Q[1]
Tiny Mix Tapes[8]
XLR8R8.5/10[9]

The Visitor received very positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73, based on 5 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[1]

Pitchfork Media gave the album a very positive review, stating, "Given its patient development and refusal to climax, The Visitor runs the risk of being labeled boring and bland. Given its use of common instruments and techniques (a cymbal scraped with a drumstick constitutes the album's most "out" sound), it runs a high risk of being labeled pedestrian, too, as if O'Rourke has taken all of his experimental tendencies and finally reduced them into an adult-contemporary instrumental. Ultimately, that's about as silly as it sounds: The Visitor is a defiant record in both sound and spirit. The reluctance of O'Rourke and Drag City to release The Visitor as a digital download, for instance, rebels against our need for instant gratification. You have to work a bit to hear it. Symbolically, it's a potent act for such an anticipated release, even if bit torrents, RapidShare, and the ilk mean it's little more than a symbol. And O'Rourke's request that you listen out loud, loudly, means that you give it your attention, that you let it fill the room with sound. After all, this is soft music—and graceful and complicated and rich, too. While it might sound polite, though, it's not to be heard passively during your morning walk to work.[7]

Year-End Rankings
Publication Rank Ref
Consequence of Sound 17 [10]
Pitchfork 39 [11]
Tiny Mix Tapes 22 [12]
Uncut 30 [13]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."The Visitor"38:03
gollark: Why do they need Unicode support that much?
gollark: OC's crafting recipes are the epitome of evil.
gollark: I'm not sure either way is *better*, but I prefer CC's simplicity.
gollark: CC is also lacking Unicode support.
gollark: How do these people manage to... productively interact with *anyone*, then?

References
  1. "The Visitor - Jim O'Rourke". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  2. Jurek, Thom. "The Visitor - Jim O'Rourke". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  3. Galo, Rob (September 8, 2009). "Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor". Beats per Minute. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  4. Kivel, Adam (September 15, 2009). "Jim O'Rourke – The Visitor". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  5. Pollard, Cayce (September 2, 2009). "Jim O'Rourke: The Visitor". Fact. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  6. Pia, Camilla (August 21, 2009). "Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor". The List. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  7. Currin, Grayson (September 18, 2009). "Jim O'Rourke: The Visitor". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  8. "Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  9. Harkin, Michael (November 5, 2009). "Jim O'Rourke The Visitor". XLR8R. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  10. "CoS Year-End Report: The Top 100 Albums of '09: 25-1". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  11. "The Top 50 Albums of 2009". Pitchfork Media. December 17, 2009. p. 2. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  12. "2009: Favorite 50 Albums of 2009 (35-21)". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  13. "Uncut's 50 Best Albums of 2009". Album of the Year. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.