Craven Faults Sidings
Craven Faults's Sidings arrives as a patient, sculpted exploration of modular synthesis and landscape, where time stretches and small gestures accrue meaning across its running pieces. Critics point to the record's ability to dilate perception: opener “Ganger” and the slow-blooming “Far Closes” emerge as immediate highlights, while “Stoneyman” crystallizes the album's hypnotic repetition and ringing piano motifs.
Across two professional reviews the critical consensus is broadly positive, reflected in an 81.5/100 consensus score from 2 reviews. Reviewers consistently praise Craven Faults' restraint and tension - the analogue synth warmth, deep low-end, and work-and-labour imagery that ground the kosmische textures. Pitchfork emphasizes propulsive waves and siren-like sequences on “Ganger” and the dizzying motion of “Stoneyman”, while The Quietus values the procession-like tension of “Ganger” and the quietly ecstatic culmination of “Far Closes”.
Not all admiration is unqualified: critics note the album's reliance on long-form pacing and slow-build structures, meaning its rewards come to those patient enough to inhabit its loops. Still, the record's careful sequencing - quieter middle suites flanked by towering synth slabs - makes Sidings feel like Craven Faults' most irresistible work to date, a study in time dilation, labour, and landscape that cements the standout tracks as essential entry points. For readers searching for a Sidings review, or wondering what the best songs on Sidings are, “Ganger”, “Far Closes”, and “Stoneyman” are the consensus picks.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Far Closes
2 mentions
"Finale “Far Closes” begins with a signature fade-up, competing synth sequences elbowing each other out of the way."— Pitchfork
Ganger
2 mentions
"You can zoom through all 16 minutes of opener “Ganger” in an instant, carried by its propulsive waves of sharp notes and cresting LFOs,"— Pitchfork
Stoneyman
2 mentions
"There’s a neat trick of rhythm at the beginning of “Stoneyman,” the second cut on Craven Faults ’ new album, Sidings."— Pitchfork
You can zoom through all 16 minutes of opener “Ganger” in an instant, carried by its propulsive waves of sharp notes and cresting LFOs,
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Ganger
Stoneyman
Yard Loup
Three Loaning End
Up Goods Distant, Down Goods Home
Incline Huttes
Drover Hole Sike
Far Closes
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 2 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Craven Faults’s Sidings singles out the album’s slow-build long pieces and the shorter interludes as its best tracks, notably “Ganger” and “Far Closes”. Bolton writes in a restrained, observant tone, praising the tension of “Ganger” as a procession that never quite releases, and calling “Far Closes” quietly ecstatic and the moving culmination of the record. The review stakes the album as Craven Faults’ most irresistible work to date, rooted in Yorkshire landscape imagery and analogue warmth. This makes clear the best songs on Sidings are those that balance slow, steady tempos with swelling synth emotion.
Key Points
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‘Far Closes’ is the best song because it is the quietly ecstatic, moving culmination that pushes emotion through an icy synth landscape.
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The album’s core strengths are its restraint, steady tempos, and evocative analogue synths that evoke Yorkshire landscapes and muted yearning.
Themes
Critic's Take
On Craven Faults’ Sidings the best songs are those that warp time into immersive loops, particularly “Stoneyman” and “Ganger”. Dash Lewis lingers on how “Stoneyman” deploys ringing piano eighths and shifting accents to create dizzying, hypnotic motion, and praises opener “Ganger” for its propulsive waves and siren-like sequences. These tracks embody the album’s signature of interlocking modular patterns and deep, doomy basslines, which make them the standout moments when people search for the best tracks on Sidings or the best songs on Sidings. The record’s sequencing - quieter middle suite bookended by towering kosmische slabs - further elevates those highlights into an immersive whole.
Key Points
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“Stoneyman” and “Ganger” stand out for their rhythmic tricks, propulsive waves, and hypnotic modular patterns.
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Sidings’ core strengths are immersive modular textures, time-warping repetition, and a sequencing arc that bookends ambient middle passages with towering kosmische pieces.