Joshua Burnside Teeth of Time
Released Feb 25, 2025 Nettwerk Music Group
Early read 1 professional review Updated Oct 2, 2026
Strong critical consensus
Early read based on 1 professional reviews. Joshua Burnside's Teeth of Time opens as a quietly ambitious, emotionally rich collection that folds fatherhood, mortality and urban atmosphere into a loom of folk and electronic experimentation.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
The Good Life
1 critic mention
“On the kitchen-sink melodrama of ‘The Good Life’, he luxuriates in domestic bliss.” — Hot Press
In the Silence Of
1 critic mention
Full critic consensus
Joshua Burnside's Teeth of Time opens as a quietly ambitious, emotionally rich collection that folds fatherhood, mortality and urban atmosphere into a loom of folk and electronic experimentation. Across the record critics single out “The Good Life” and “In the Silence Of” for their immediacy and production, while “Ghost of the Bloomfield Road” and the opener “Teeth of Time/Mountain” emerge in other reviews as standout tracks that illustrate the album's contrasts and juxtapositions.
The critical consensus, reflected in a 90/100 score from one professional review, praises Burnside's ability to balance domestic life and nostalgia with sharper political and place-based observations. Reviewers consistently note eclectic instrumentation and striking shifts in tone - whispered spoken word, crepuscular folk textures and bursts of electronica - as the record's emotional engine. Praised songs like “The Good Life” are lauded for kitchen-sink melodrama and intimate warmth, while “In the Silence Of” is celebrated for incorporating electronic elements to dazzling effect.
While admiration dominates, critics also emphasize the album's careful contrasts: urban versus wild, sorrow versus hard-won happiness, simplicity versus layered production. That tension makes Teeth of Time feel cohesive yet richly varied, rewarding repeat listens and positioning it as a significant, measured step in Burnside's catalogue. Read on for full reviews and track-by-track notes that unpack why several critics point to these songs as the best on Teeth of Time.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Teeth of Time/Mountain
Up and Down
The Good Life
Sycamore Queen
Ghost of the Bloomfield Road
Climb the Tower
Marching Round The Ladies
In the Silence Of
Good For One Thing
Nothing Completed
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 2 critics who reviewed this album
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Critic's Take
Joshua Burnside carves out a quietly ambitious record on Teeth of Time, and the reviewer's ear latches onto songs like “The Good Life” and “In the Silence Of” as pivotal moments. The writing praises the kitchen-sink melodrama of “The Good Life”, where Burnside luxuriates in domestic bliss, and applauds “In the Silence Of” for incorporating electronica to dazzling effect. There is a persistent sense of nostalgia tempered by contemporary design, which makes queries about the best songs on Teeth of Time point straight to those two tracks as essential listens. Overall the tone insists this is a remarkable, repeat-listening record that balances cohesion with eclectic terrain.
Key Points
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The Good Life is best for its kitchen-sink melodrama and luxurious portrayal of domestic bliss.
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The album's core strength is balancing nostalgic songwriting with contemporary, eclectic production and urban atmosphere.
Themes
KL
Critic's Take
In this review Thomas Blake writes with clear-eyed admiration for Joshua Burnside and his Teeth of Time, and he keeps returning to the album's best tracks - “Ghost of the Bloomfield Road” and “Teeth of Time/Mountain” - as exemplars of its emotional stakes. Blake praises “Ghost of the Bloomfield Road” for its uneasy, low-key folk textures and crepuscular ambience, and he highlights the opener “Teeth of Time/Mountain” for bringing whispered spoken word into the centre. The review locates much of the album's power in contrasts, from urban to wild and from sorrow to hard-won happiness, which makes the best songs feel both immediate and considered. Blake's tone is admiring but measured, insisting these tracks reveal Burnside's most rounded and layered work yet.
Key Points
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The best song, "Ghost of the Bloomfield Road", is the standout for its uneasy folk textures, poignant contrast between ghost and newborn, and crepuscular electronics.
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The album’s core strength is Blake's portrait of contrast - folk tradition versus experimentation, and sorrow versus hard-won happiness - making the work both immediate and deeply considered.