Lucy Gooch Desert Window
Lucy Gooch's Desert Window announces a patient, nocturnal turn in her songwriting where folk intimacy meets ambient daring, and critics largely agree it succeeds more often than not. Across two professional reviews the record earned a 72/100 consensus score, with writers pointing to the two-part “Night Window” suite and opener “Like Clay” as the album's most arresting moments. Those tracks emerge as the best songs on Desert Window thanks to their sweep from fingerpicked closeness to layered, drone-inflected catharsis.
The critical consensus emphasizes themes of ethereal beauty, transformation, and a fusion of folk and ambient textures. Reviewers consistently praise the album's organic instrumentation and medieval-poetry inflections, noting how loops, layered vocals, cornet and occasional sax move songs from tension to release. Critics spotlight “Night Window - Part One” and “Night Window - Part Two” as the collection's centerpiece, while “Like Clay”, “Jack Hare” and the title track “Desert Window” are singled out for their haunting melodies and compositional ambition.
At the same time, professional reviews temper enthusiasm with measured criticism about occasional meandering passages and sprawling experiments that slow momentum. Some critics find tracks like “Keep Pulling Me In” and other longer stretches reward repeated listens rather than instant hooks, which frames the record as a work of gradual revelation rather than immediate gratification. Ultimately, the consensus suggests Desert Window is worth listening to for those drawn to ambient pop that privileges atmosphere and transformation over tidy pop craft, and it stakes a distinctive, if occasionally uneven, place in Gooch's catalog.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Night Window - Part One
2 mentions
"The record's two-part epic “Night Window” exemplifies her tendency to shift between these mystical and theatrical modes."— Pitchfork
Night Window - Part Two
2 mentions
"In the second half, more acoustic instrumentation enters the fray, with struck keys and brassy bleats teasing an emotional overflow."— Pitchfork
Like Clay
2 mentions
"Opener “Like Clay” is the biggest departure from Gooch’s earlier work, building from shimmery fingerpicked guitar"— Pitchfork
The record's two-part epic “Night Window” exemplifies her tendency to shift between these mystical and theatrical modes.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Like Clay
Night Window - Part One
Night Window - Part Two
Keep Pulling Me In
Jack Hare
Clouds
Our Relativity
Desert Window
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Lucy Gooch's Desert Window finds its best songs in expansive, patient pieces like “Night Window - Part One” and “Like Clay” where drone and voice flirt with catharsis. The reviewer's language lingers on the record's audacity - it prizes the album's riskier, roomier trajectories over tidy pop craft. Praise centers on moments of ethereal beauty framed by understated tension, particularly the ten-minute “Night Window” suite and the opener “Like Clay” which blossoms from fingerpicked intimacy into layered experimentation. Even criticism is measured, aimed mostly at the meandering stretches of “Keep Pulling Me In” rather than the album's core strengths.
Key Points
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The best song is the two-part “Night Window” suite because it sustains tension and teases catharsis across ten minutes.
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The album's core strengths are its audacity, atmospheric arrangements, and the blend of organic instruments with ambient textures.
Themes
Critic's Take
Lucy Gooch’s Desert Window finds its best moments in songs that fold intimacy into larger soundscapes, particularly “Like Clay” and the two-part “Night Window”. Young notes how the opener’s layered vocals and looping guitar capture transformation, while “Night Window (Part One)” and “Night Window (Part Two)” act as the album’s centerpiece, moving from sparse meditation to sax-inflected dynamism. Tracks like “Keep Pulling Me In” and “Clouds” further reward repeated listens, blending surreal lyricism with cinematic cornet and folk textures. The title track “Desert Window” closes the record with Gooch at her most powerful, summing up the album’s push and pull between intimacy and expansiveness.
Key Points
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The best song is the two-part “Night Window” suite because it serves as the album's emotional and dynamic centerpiece.
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The album's core strengths are its blend of folk and ambient textures and the push and pull between intimacy and expansiveness.