| "Balint
has succeeded in recording the young year's most quirky and
compelling album." |
|
Billboard
|
"Darkly
ironic tunes laced with supple fiddle playing."
|
|
The
New Yorker
|
|
"On
the quirky Mud, [Balint] sings of shady predicaments, her
low, cool vocals mingling with twangy strings and echoing
vibraphones."
|
|
Entertainment
Weekly
|
|
"Captivating…Balint
slinks and shudders in a manner not unlike Polly Jean Harvey...
while wending her way from dirt road nastiness to penthouse
elegance. Fasten your seat belts."
|
|
David
Sprague, Village Voice
|
|
"Working
with producing Svengali JD Foster guarantees sultry vocals
and warm, intimate arrangements. In the case of Eszter Balint
and her sophomore release for Bar/None, Mud, Foster delivers
once again, with [Ms. Balint] haunting west side Americana
with urban aplomb."
|
|
Austin
Chronicle
|
|
"[The
album closer'] "Who Are You Now" starts out sounding like
this year's most poignant broken heart song. But in the last
verse, [Balint] makes the whole story sound tragic for a different,
delusional reason. It is this type of intrigue that makes
Mud one of the more captivating albums to come so far this
year."
|
|
Pittsburg
Pulp
|
|
"An
unusually crafted and starkly satisfying album. Her smoky
provocative vocals [are] supported by captivating arrangements
[and] her song constructions often have a frantic beauty."
|
|
Miles
of Music
|
|
| "Her
songs are full of characters on the run... Miss Balint has
her own film-noir sensibility as a songwriter. She puts arty
twists into back-alley Americana... But the cleverness is
not the point. [She] slips inside her characters to project
their restlessness and longing..." |
|
Jon
Pareles,
The New York Times
|
| "Mud
casts an undeniably seductive spell. A cool but spooky vibe
runs through its 10 songs, and The Soprano folks should be
calling any day to borrow one of Balint's lovely and dark
ditties for a future episode." |
|
Amplifier
|
|
"Balint
and her band show up, turn it up, and let fly with a collection
of songs that balances nuance, grace, toughness, and a cool
reportorial cynicism... and it all throbs with a kind of
languorous tension that makes it shabbily elegant and rustically
beautiful."
|
|
Thom
Jurek, All Music Guide
|
|
"Unconventional
voices that defy classification, but demand attention. Such
is the case with the amazing Eszter Balint. Years from now,
mainstream music magazines will be writing about the buffet
in the casino lobby outside Beyonce's Vegas lounge show.
But Balint will still be making timely, challenging music."
|
|
Tampa
Tribune
|
"The
album flows from style to style to style, song to song
effortlessly... Eszter Balint has managed to create a
record that achieves most or all of what her more popular
contemporaries have failed to for the last several years."
|
|
Jaded
Times
|
|
| "Mud
conjures rural calm as much as it does urban grit. Her songs
are ominously spare in sound and lyrics, and firmly focused
on Balint's placid, inviting voice." |
|
Time
Out New York
|
|
"Unlike
many actors who venture into music, Eszter Balint made a wise
move. [She] has clearly found her true calling on the seductively
compelling Mud. Drawing on rootsy sounds, this understated
sophomore album offers time-tested takes on desire and alienation,
yet never seems rote."
|
|
Jon
Young, Harp
|
|
"Balint
possesses a lived in sort of voice... [she] adapts masterfully
to every change of tenor, waxing alternately wan and wild,
giving the impression that she's capable of going off the
rails at any moment -- and just as capable of righting herself
for a graceful exit on cue."
|
|
Barnes
& Noble.com
|
|
"[Balint]
is neither self-absorbed soul-searcher nor hip-cocked rocker...
her arrangements create an oddly enveloping atmosphere."
|
|
Orlando
Weekly
|
"The
striking Mud is primal but ghostly, lovely but devilish...
it finds [Balint] cooing picturesque tales amid fractured,
smoky arrangements."
|
|
Orange
County Register
|
"There's
not a throwaway on Mud. This disc will likely garner a lot
of attention."
|
|
Greenwich
Time
|
"It's
one of the most truly stage setting, mood altering albums
I've ever heard. The intensity ranges from a subtle moodiness
to urgency and eagerness. It's completely engaging."
|
|
indieworkshop.com
|
|
