Gwenifer Raymond Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark
Gwenifer Raymond's Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark arrives as a nocturnal study in primitive guitar lineage and instrumental storytelling, a record critics frame as both rooted and adventurous. Across professional reviews, the title track “Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark”, “Jack Parsons Blues” and “Banjo Players Of Aleph One” emerge repeatedly as the best songs on the record, each exemplifying Raymond's marriage of folk-blues drive, drone textures and impressionistic world-building.
The critical consensus, an 80/100 across three professional reviews, praises Raymond's technical mastery and the album's broad palette - from Americana and drone fusion to psychedelic raga and ragtime touches. Reviewers consistently highlight her thumbed, percussive attack and slide work: the title track's lung-filling rocking cadence and fretboard scurries; “Jack Parsons Blues” as a mystic, droning centerpiece; and “Banjo Players Of Aleph One” for its Americana-dronal breadth. Critics note the Welsh landscape influence and sci-fi-inflected sense of infinity that keeps the record feeling cinematic and oddly vast.
While the three reviews are uniformly positive, they emphasize different strengths - narrative guitar virtuosity, impressionistic pieces, and psychedelic expansion of folk forms - which gives the album a textured, slightly elusive character rather than a single, radio-ready hook. For readers searching for a focused instrumental collection that stretches traditional forms, the consensus suggests Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark is both worth hearing and an essential snapshot of Raymond's evolving voice in contemporary folk-blues.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Taff River piece
1 mention
"The track dedicated to the Taff River meanders along more softly"— The Quietus
Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
3 mentions
"the expansive title track allows Gwenifer Raymond to truly fill her lungs with air and scream"— Clash Music
Bleak Night In Rabbit’s Wood
1 mention
"The pensive opening notes of ‘Bleak Night In Rabbit’s Wood’ tread forward like an uncertain mammal"— The Quietus
The track dedicated to the Taff River meanders along more softly
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Banjo Players of Aleph One
Jack Parsons Blues
Champion Ivy
Bliws Afon Tâf
Bonfire of the Billionaires
Dreams of Rhiannon's Birds
Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark
Cattywomp
Bleak Night in Rabbit's Wood
One Day You'll Lie Here But Everything Will
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Welsh-born, Brighton-located guitarist Gwenifer Raymond returns with Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark, a focussed record that doubles down on her best songwriting and most lyrical playing. The review celebrates the album's broad palette, from the Americana drone of “Banjo Players Of Aleph One” to the forceful thumbed drive of “Jack Parsons Blues” and the expansive, lung-filling title track. Murray's tone is admiring and precise, noting impressionistic pieces like “Dreams Of Rhiannon’s Birds” alongside sprightly ragtime “Cattywomp” as evidence of genuine range. Read as a whole, the best tracks on Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark are those that marry primitive lineage with outside influences, with “Banjo Players Of Aleph One”, “Jack Parsons Blues” and the title track standing out most vividly.
Key Points
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The best song(s) combine primitive guitar lineage with outside influences, producing intense, memorable pieces like "Banjo Players Of Aleph One".
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The album's core strengths are instrumental range, lyrical playing, and a willingness to push guitar vocabulary into new, impressionistic spaces.
Themes
Critic's Take
The Quietus writer hears Gwenifer Raymond conjuring cinematic landscapes on Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark, and it is the title track and the second piece that stand tallest. The review’s voice is breathless but precise, praising the urgent fretboard scurries of “Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark” and the desperation summoned by the album’s second track as the record races toward an implied end. The critic repeatedly returns to Raymond’s unmatched mastery and storytelling through strings, noting how the title track’s rocking cadence becomes a tumble of Western notes while the Taff River piece meanders with intricate internal rhythms. This is a celebration of instrumental narration, so searches for the best songs on Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark will repeatedly find the title track and the urgent second track recommended here.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its cinematic rocking cadence and vivid Western imagery.
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The album’s core strength is Raymond’s virtuoso instrumental storytelling and meticulous fingerwork.
Themes
Critic's Take
Gwenifer Raymond's Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark feels like a study in nocturnal guitar invention, where the best tracks - notably “Jack Parsons Blues” and the title track - marry folk-blues grind with psychedelic raga. The reviewer praises her percussive hammering and the way melodies fray and linger, making “Jack Parsons Blues” a mystic drone centerpiece and the title track a spiraling, blues-steeped apex. Raymond's immersion in science fiction is less about electronics and more about an idea of infinity, which surfaces in drone pieces and ghostly slide arcs. These songs stand out because they stretch old forms toward a surreal future while remaining rooted in raw, assured guitar work.
Key Points
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The best song(s) blend folk-blues roots with psychedelic drone to stretch traditional forms into something surreal.
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The album's core strength is assured, percussive guitar work that lets melodies fray, linger, and suggest infinity.