Godspeed You! Black Emperor No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead confronts catastrophe with an elegiac, politically charged sweep that many critics found powerful even when the record feels familiar. Across seven professional reviews the consensus score lands at 69.86/100, and reviewers repeatedly point to ritualized restraint, instrumental narrative, and a tension between desolation and hope as the album's guiding forces. Critics agree the band privileges communal grief and resistance over cheap catharsis, turning mournful textures into moments of collective insistence rather than spectacle.
Reviewers consistently identify standout tracks in the album's later passages: “Raindrops cast in lead”, “Broken Spires at Dead Kapital” and “Pale Spectator takes Photographs” recur as the best songs on the record, praised for their climactic heft, emotional dynamism and political urgency. Several critics single out “Big Ideas” and “The Wave” for restraint and deliberation, while others celebrate “Babys in a Thundercloud” and “Grey Rubble - Green Shoots” for translating grief into collective force. Professional reviews note recurring themes - mourning and aftermath, anti-imperialism, silence and restraint - and many frame the work as an act of remembrance with explicit political reference and grief for Palestine woven through the sound.
That said, critics are divided on scope and novelty: some praise the closing sequence as Godspeed's most galvanizing material in years, while others fault a bloated, imitative first half that undercuts the album's impact. The critical consensus suggests No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead is worth listening to for its powerful final movements and thematic cohesion, even if its adherence to established forms leaves parts of the record feeling repetitive. Below, the full reviews unpack where the record excels and where it repeats familiar rituals.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Big Ideas
1 mention
"they said nothing"— Dusted Magazine
The Wave
1 mention
"expressing wordless thanks"— Dusted Magazine
Raindrops cast in lead
6 mentions
"“Raindrops cast in lead” has a climactic finish that could well be the loudest and most punishing in Godspeed’s history"— Beats Per Minute
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Big Ideas
Linoleum
The Company of Strangers
Imagining France
Weight Of It All
Erasure
In The Headlights He
Heron
Perfume
If You'd Seen Him
The Wave
Godspeed
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 9 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
In their quiet, monumental way, Godspeed You! Black Emperor fashion a record of public mourning on No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead, where the best tracks - notably “Big Ideas” and “The Wave” - unfold like deliberate reckonings. The reviewer's eye lingers on the album's restraint, the way passages breath and then insist, and it praises those moments as the best tracks on the record because they crystallize the band's patient power. This is not ranting catharsis but composed elegy - the songs that let silence speak become the record's strongest statements. The result is an album that rewards slow listening, and those who seek the best songs on No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead will find them in its long, exacting movements.
Key Points
-
The best song is best because it embodies the band’s restrained, elegiac power and rewards patient listening.
-
The album’s core strength is its composed instrumental narrative that turns silence and minimal interaction into emotional weight.
Themes
Critic's Take
In his vivid, sometimes exhausted voice John Wohlmacher argues that Godspeed You! Black Emperor's No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead finds its strongest moments in tracks like “Raindrops cast in lead” and “Grey Rubble - Green Shoots”, songs that trade the group's usual apocalyptic dread for muscular, mournful resolve. He praises “Babys in a thundercloud” for its sirens-into-jazz-drums build and calls “Raindrops cast in lead” possibly the loudest, most punishing thing they've done, making these the best tracks on the album by virtue of emotional weight and climactic release. Throughout the review he keeps returning to how the music translates grief into collective force, which is why listeners seeking the best songs on this record will land on those cathartic climaxes.
Key Points
-
The best song is the climactic “Raindrops cast in lead” because of its punishing finale and full-band prominence.
-
The album's core strength is translating political grief into muscular, mournful music that alternates between dread and defiant catharsis.
Themes
Critic's Take
Writing with a weary but celebratory eye, Godspeed You! Black Emperor turn the grim premise of No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead into moments of communal uplift. Berman privileges immediacy and fellowship, arguing that tracks like “Raindrops Cast in Lead” and “Babys in a Thundercloud” are where the band’s catharsis and joy most vividly coalesce. The reviewist’s sentences balance elegy and exultation, presenting the best songs on the album as galvanizing, friendship-forged anthems rather than solipsistic epics. In short, the best tracks trade apocalypse for communion, and that trade-off is the record’s greatest strength.
Key Points
-
The best song, "Raindrops Cast in Lead", is the album’s galvanizing centerpiece that turns camaraderie into ecstatic release.
-
The album’s core strength is emotional dynamism: it shifts from mourning to exultation and prioritizes communal catharsis over grandiose structure.
Themes
Th
Critic's Take
Paul Attard finds that Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead often trades on its own rituals, praising moments like “Raindrops Cast in Lead” and “Broken Spires at Dead Kapital” for their imposing dynamics while faulting the album for predictability. The review leans on the band’s signature textures - slow-building ambiance, interlocking guitars and strings - to explain why the best tracks still land with force. Still, Attard insists the familiarity that powers songs such as “Pale Spectator Takes Photographs” undercuts the visceral punch that made past records thrilling. Overall, the reviewer frames the album as potent in parts but held back by adherence to form, which answers searches for the best tracks on the album with a caveat rooted in tone and repetition.
Key Points
-
The best song moments (notably “Raindrops Cast in Lead”) succeed by locking the band into intense, cumulative dynamics.
-
The album’s core strength is its epic ambiance and texture-building, but repetition and formula limit its impact.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
In her measured, urgent voice Aimee Ferrier presents Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead as a politically-charged masterpiece where the best tracks - notably “Broken Spires At Dead Kapital” and “Pale Spectator Takes Photographs” - do the heaviest lifting, turning devastation into fierce, vocalised anger. Ferrier’s prose is elegiac and exacting, noting how the band’s textures and drawn-out guitars on “Sun Is A Hole Sun Is Vapors” and the build of “Babys In A Thundercloud” induce genuine goosebumps. Throughout the review she insists the album forces listeners to "pay attention", arguing that these standout songs make the record an urgent act of remembrance rather than a commercial gesture.
Key Points
-
The best song, "Broken Spires At Dead Kapital", is the album’s emotional apex because of its mournful strings and devastating percussive shocks.
-
The album’s core strengths are its politically urgent themes, immersive instrumental textures, and the ability to move listeners without lyrics.
Themes
Critic's Take
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead finds its best tracks in the long-form devastations of “RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD”, the droning requiem of “BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL” and the fragile uplift of “GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS”. Oscar Lund writes with measured, somber authority, noting how “RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD” builds a relentless rhythm and how “BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL” warps into a slow parading drumbeat, making these the standout moments on the album. The review frames these best songs as political and emotional anchors, arguing they make the record an uncompromised work of art rather than casual listening.
Key Points
-
The best song(s) are expansive, politically charged pieces that use relentless rhythm and mournful drones to dramatise civilian loss.
-
The album's core strengths are its uncompromised political messaging, dense sonic architecture, and emotional weight.
Themes
Critic's Take
Godspeed You! Black Emperor's No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead is a study in contrasts, where the best songs emerge in the final third rather than the opening. The reviewer's praise concentrates on “BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL” and “PALE SPECTATOR TAKES PHOTOGRAPHS”, which are described as desperately sad and furious respectively, and the closing passage that recalls AT STATE'S END! feels bittersweet and slightly hopeful. The criticism is blunt - the first half is called bloated, imitative and listless, while the last twenty minutes are hailed as Godspeed at their best. For listeners asking 'best tracks on No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead', the review points squarely to the final three pieces as the album's highlights.
Key Points
-
The best song(s) are in the final third, notably “BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL” for its desperate grief and “PALE SPECTATOR TAKES PHOTOGRAPHS” for its anger and drumming.
-
The album's core strength is its powerful final twenty minutes that fuse political fury with bittersweet hope, but this is undermined by a bloated, imitative first half.