Everything Is Recorded Temporary
Everything Is Recorded's Temporary unfolds as a quiet meditation on impermanence and memory, a record where melody often outweighs momentum and moments of grief resolve into tonal acceptance. Across two professional reviews the critical consensus lands on a mixed but thoughtful note: the album earned a 62.5/100 consensus score from two professional reviews, with critics agreeing that its strengths lie in intimate vocal performances, harmonies, and carefully calibrated production.
Reviewers consistently praise specific songs that emerge as the record's emotional anchors. Clash Music highlights “My And Me” and “Goodbye (Hell of a Ride)” as luminous distillations of isolation and farewell, while Far Out Magazine singles out “Never Felt Better” and “No More Rehearsals” for lingering harmonies and eccentric unpredictability. Critics note a preference for melody over rhythm, an emphasis on spacious arrangements, and the way collaborations allow guest voices to become clear vessels of feeling. Themes of reflection, grief, and ephemeral moments recur across reviews, as does admiration for the album's production choices and genre-mixing sensibility.
Yet the responses are not uniform. Some reviewers find the pace and stillness rewarding only with patient, repeated listens, describing the album as more of a cohesive whole or a series of chapter-like vignettes than a set of immediate singles. Others celebrate individual tracks as standout moments that justify the record's slower gravity. For readers wondering whether Temporary is worth listening to, the critical consensus suggests a deliberate, mood-driven experience: not universally dazzling, but rich in harmonies and small revelations that reveal themselves over time as the best songs take hold.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
No More Rehearsals
1 mention
"The eras covered in this track span bedroom pop to ‘60s rock"— Far Out Magazine
Never Felt Better
2 mentions
"‘Never Felt Better’, featuring Florence Welch and Sampha, plays with contradiction in its exploration of emotional numbness."— Clash Music
Goodbye (Hell Of A Ride)
2 mentions
"By the time we reach ‘Goodbye (Hell of a Ride)’, the album has taken us through a full cycle of emotions"— Clash Music
The eras covered in this track span bedroom pop to ‘60s rock
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
October
My And Me
Porcupine Tattoo
Never Felt Better
Ether
Losing You
Firelight
The Summons
No More Rehearsals
You Were Smiling
Norm
Swamp Dream #3
The Meadows
Goodbye (Hell Of A Ride)
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Richard Russell’s Temporary reads like a meditation on impermanence where the best songs - notably “My And Me” and “Goodbye (Hell of a Ride)” - distill grief into luminous melodies. Josh Crowe’s voice here is intimate and observant, noting how “My And Me” lays bare isolation while the closer “Goodbye (Hell of a Ride)” turns farewell into acceptance. The album favours space and stillness, so the best tracks are those that let collaborators become the gentlest, clearest vessels of feeling. This is an album where melody triumphs over rhythm, and the top songs reward close, repeated listening.
Key Points
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The best song, “My And Me”, is the record’s emotional centerpiece because of its raw confessional lyrics and hypnotic production.
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The album’s core strength is Russell’s curation of collaborators and prioritising melody and space to create a cohesive, life-affirming meditation on impermanence.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
Listen to Everything Is Recorded's Temporary as a whole: the best songs - “Never Felt Better” and “No More Rehearsals” - reward that patience. The reviewer delights in the album's beautiful, natural-sounding harmonies and eccentric unpredictability, praising production and vocal performances that keep you guessing. In the same weary, affectionate voice used throughout the review, the record is framed less as a collection of singles and more like chapter titles in a strange audiobook, where standout tracks like “Never Felt Better” linger most memorably. This is an album to set time aside for, because its shifts and surprises make the best tracks shine brighter in context.
Key Points
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The best song, "Never Felt Better", endures because its vocal and instrumental performances linger and could function as the album's single.
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The album's core strengths are its natural-sounding harmonies, unpredictable genre-mixing, and strong production that rewards whole-album listening.