Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke Tall Tales
Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke's Tall Tales stakes out a peculiar terrain between retro synthpop and uneasy futurism, where haunting melodies and analogue textures repeatedly collide. Across professional reviews the record earns a measured thumbs-up: it has a 71.9/100 consensus score from 10 reviews, and critics consistently point to a handful of tracks as the album's clear rewards. For listeners asking "is Tall Tales good," the quick answer from the critical consensus is that its highs justify the trip even when long swathes feel deliberately oblique.
Reviewers consistently praise songs such as “A Fake in a Faker's World”, “The White Cliffs” and “The Men Who Dance in Stag's Heads” as the record's standout tracks. Critics note Yorke's vocal experimentation and many-persona falsetto set against Pritchard's analogue-digital production, producing moments of eerie warmth on “Back in the Game” and cinematic anxiety on “Bugging Out Again”. Themes running through the reviews include retro-futurism, social media dystopia, climate dread and electronic decay, with commentators praising how playful mischief and monstrous imagery coexist with genuine melodic payoff.
Not all reviews are unanimous: some critics find the album episodic and occasionally formless, arguing that ambient stretches dilute its more compelling pop moments. Yet the overarching critical narrative frames Tall Tales as a provocative collaboration that rewards focused listening; the consensus score and repeated shout-outs to the same best songs make it clear which tracks to cue first. The piece below unpacks those praise-and-critique threads and why certain songs emerge as the record's most memorable achievements.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
The Men Who Dance In Stags’ Heads
1 mention
"ghostly harmonium imprint reverberating through “The Men Who Dance In Stags’ Heads”"— The Line of Best Fit
A Fake in a Faker’s World
9 mentions
"From the marauding evolution of “A Faker in a Faker’s World”"— The Line of Best Fit
The White Cliffs
9 mentions
"the ether-scraping highs of “The White Cliffs” eerily echoes David Lynch"— The Line of Best Fit
ghostly harmonium imprint reverberating through “The Men Who Dance In Stags’ Heads”
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
A Fake in a Faker’s World
Ice Shelf
Bugging Out Again
Back in the Game
The White Cliffs
The Spirit
Gangsters
This Conversation is Missing Your Voice
Tall Tales
Happy Days
The Men Who Dance in Stag’s Heads
Wandering Genie
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 11 critics who reviewed this album
Re
Critic's Take
Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke's Tall Tales is a record of unsettled pleasures, where the best tracks - notably “A Fake In A Faker's World”, “The Spirit” and “Back in the Game” - deliver arresting, often corroded moments amid an otherwise ephemeral album. The reviewer lingers on Yorke's many-persona vocals and Pritchard's analogue textures, praising how songs like “A Fake In A Faker's World” and “The Spirit” reveal themselves over repeated listens. Even when the vibes are deliberately off, these highlights make clear why listeners will search for the best songs on Tall Tales and return to these tracks. Time will tell if the album's few commanding moments outweigh its many unsatisfying tales.
Key Points
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The Spirit stands out as the album's emotionally clear pivot, revealing beauty over time.
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Tall Tales' core strengths are Yorke's vocal experimentation and Pritchard's vintage analogue textures that create a retro-futuristic unease.
Themes
Critic's Take
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard’s Tall Tales often feels like a twilight manifesto, where the best songs - “A Fake in a Faker’s World”, “The White Cliffs” and “The Men Who Dance In Stags’ Heads” - delineate its strengths: vivid synthworlds, haunted melodies and socio-political sting. The review’s voice lingers on the marauding evolution of “A Faker in a Faker’s World”, the Lynchian hush of “The White Cliffs” and the ghostly harmonium of “The Men Who Dance In Stags’ Heads” as the record’s most arresting moments. Visually and sonically the collaborations cohere into a frequent interplay of analogue warmth and digital dread, making these tracks the clearest answers to queries about the best tracks on Tall Tales.
Key Points
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The best song is driven by vivid synthworlds and explicit socio-political lyricism, exemplified by “A Fake in a Faker’s World”.
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The album’s core strengths are its fusion of analogue warmth and digital dread, haunting melodies, and evocative visual collaborations.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard’s Tall Tales is a dense, dystopian electronic record where the best tracks - notably “Back in the Game” and “Bugging Out Again” - crystallise the album’s anxious, cinematic mood. Helen Brown’s voice lingers on Yorke’s falsetto and Pritchard’s layered textures, praising the gorgeous melody of “Bugging Out Again” while admiring the disquieting fanfare of “Back in the Game”. The review frames the album as filmic and emotionally askew, with vintage synth effects and humanist themes driving the strongest moments. Overall, the critic presents the best tracks as those that balance lyrical angst with sumptuous melodic payoff, making them the standout songs on Tall Tales.
Key Points
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The best song, "Bugging Out Again", is best for its gorgeous melody and elegant phrasing that elevate the album’s anxieties.
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The album’s core strengths are its dense, cinematic electronic textures and Yorke’s emotionally askew vocal performances addressing dystopian themes.
Themes
Critic's Take
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard limber up on Tall Tales, where risky maneuvers yield both fleeting genius and uneven stretches. The review singles out “The Spirit” as the album’s show-stealer and points to the irresistible new-wave pop of “Gangsters” and the vaudevillian menace of “Happy Days” as best tracks. Monroe writes with a wry affection - praising bright, songful highs amid ambient, impenetrable openers - making clear that the best songs on Tall Tales are those that marry melody to mischief.
Key Points
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The best song is "The Spirit" because its joyous keyboard pulse and rapturous vocal line make it the album's emotional apex.
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Tall Tales balances ambient, impenetrable openers with hooky, melodically irresistible tracks that supply dopamine amid darker themes.
Themes
Critic's Take
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard’s Tall Tales is a chilly, engrossing detour that often lets Yorke’s haunted voice steer the mood. The review keeps returning to highlights like “Bugging Out Again” and “The Men Who Dance in Stag’s Heads” as the album’s best tracks, praising their eerie textures and unexpectedly organic warmth. Jon Dolan’s tone is admiring and slightly bemused, noting pop nods in “Gangsters” and the unnerving shimmer of “Ice Shelf” while conceding that “Happy Days” can be skipped. The net effect is a lovable, sometimes glacial record that rewards repeated listens and attention to its standout songs.
Key Points
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The Men Who Dance in Stag's Heads is the album’s emotional and organic apex, called transcendent by the reviewer.
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Tall Tales excels in haunting vocal performances and varied vintage synth textures that reward attentive listening.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke's Tall Tales is at its best when the experimental textures meet Yorke's indie instincts, producing highlights like “Back in the Game”, “The Spirit” and “The Men Who Dance in Stag’s Heads”. Kelly Murphy's voice is measured and observant, noting that these songs strike a satisfying balance while other moments drift into formlessness. The review repeatedly frames the album as a delicate dreamscape, praising tracks that tether the otherworldly to familiar songcraft. For listeners searching for the best songs on Tall Tales, those three tracks are recommended as the record's clearest rewards.
Key Points
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The best song is one that balances Yorke's indie melodies with Pritchard's experimental edge, exemplified by "Back in the Game".
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The album's core strength is its dreamlike experimental textures that occasionally cohere into accessible, emotionally resonant songs.
Themes
Critic's Take
There are clear best tracks on Tall Tales, and Phil Taylor’s ear picks out moments of real reward - notably “A Fake In A Faker’s World” and “The White Cliffs”. Taylor writes with a measured, observant voice, praising the album’s otherworldly textures while admiring Yorke’s moments of vocal clarity on “Back in the Game” and “The White Cliffs”. The review frames these songs as the record’s centrepieces, where Pritchard’s layered production and Yorke’s voice converge into concise emotional punch. Overall, the piece recommends listening for those standout tracks when searching for the best songs on Tall Tales.
Key Points
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‘The White Cliffs’ is singled out as the most perfectly formed track, balancing vocal clarity and expansive production.
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The album’s strengths are its atmospheric, otherworldly production and Yorke’s shifting vocal approaches, from processed dreamlike textures to clear, declamatory lines.
Themes
Critic's Take
In her astute, slightly queasy voice Victoria Segal finds the best tracks on Tall Tales in the album’s uneasy centre - songs like “A Fake In A Faker’s World” and “The Men Who Dance In Stag’s Heads” which supply the record’s most memorable moments. She writes with a relish for monstrous images and concrete detail, tracing how Yorke’s voice settles like a cool mist over the kraut-inflected opener and how the antique drone of “The Men Who Dance In Stag’s Heads” suddenly feels almost hopeful. The review flags those two as standout tracks while also crediting the glitch torrents of “Ice Shelf” and the unsettling corporate chatter of “This Conversation Is Missing Your Voice” as vital to why listeners will seek out the best songs on Tall Tales.
Key Points
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The Men Who Dance In Stag’s Heads is most intriguing for its antique drone and otherworldly glimmer.
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Tall Tales’ core strengths are its cinematic monster imagery and inventive electronic textures that make its best songs compelling.
Themes
Critic's Take
Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke’s Tall Tales is a delirious hymn to electronic music where the best tracks - like “The White Cliffs” and “A Fake in a Faker’s World” - feel both familiar and newly unsettling. The reviewer luxuriates in its day-glo colours, noting how “The White Cliffs” uses Yorke’s falsetto before mutating into something murkier, while the John Carpenter-esque opener “A Fake in a Faker’s World” announces the album’s lineage. This is an album soaked in playfulness, humour and anger, and those standout moments are why fans will search for the best tracks on Tall Tales. The record resists pastiche, instead repurposing old synth colours into bold, surprising songs that reward repeated listens.
Key Points
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The White Cliffs is the best song because it pairs Yorke's familiar falsetto with transformative, murkier production.
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The album's core strengths are its playful reinvention of electronic genres and its restless, surprising arrangements.