The Soft Pink Truth Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?
The Soft Pink Truth's Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? turns a classical detour into a makeshift queer refuge, balancing orchestral sweep and intimate tension across its tracks. Critics broadly agree the record earns its moments of emotional clarity even as its chamber-electronic experiments occasionally recede into hush, producing a cautiously hopeful but uneven listening experience.
Across five professional reviews the album earned a 61.8/100 consensus score, with critics consistently praising standouts such as “Phrygian Ganymede”, “Orchard” and “Mere Survival Is Not Enough”. Reviewers highlight “Phrygian Ganymede” as the centerpiece - a dense, ten-minute movement where angelic flurries, chaotic piano and growling bass coalesce - while “Orchard” and “Mere Survival Is Not Enough” are singled out for their soaring strings, bucolic guitar and swelling synths. Several critics also point to quieter triumphs like “L'Esprit de L'Escalier” and “And By and By A Cloud Takes All Away”, which supply intimacy and a sense of sanctuary amid moments of political defiance and temporal unease.
While praise centers on the record's lush chamber textures, collaborative instrumentation and its framing of beauty versus turmoil, some reviewers note that the move away from the dancefloor toward avant chamber music creates passages that feel more decorative than vital. The consensus suggests that Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? is worth attention for its standout songs and emotional ambition, even if its experiments do not always cohere. Below, the full reviews unpack how these tensions shape Daniel's most recent, deliberately tentative statement.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Phrygian Ganymede
4 mentions
"the 10-minute epic "Phrygian Ganymede", a dual tribute"— Paste Magazine
Mere Survival Is Not Enough
4 mentions
"begins the record with "Mere Survival Is Not Enough," which builds from total silence into a swelling string arrangement"— Paste Magazine
Orchard
4 mentions
"recruits improvisatory guitarist Bill Orcutt for the penultimate "Orchard", whose acoustic flourishes flicker"— Paste Magazine
the 10-minute epic "Phrygian Ganymede", a dual tribute
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Mere Survival Is Not Enough
And By and By A Cloud Takes All Away
Phrygian Ganymede
Underneath (I)
L'Esprit de L'Escalier
Time Inside the Violet
Orchard
Underneath (II)
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
The Soft Pink Truth’s Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? feels like a makeshift queer refuge, and the review stakes that claim through its best tracks. The writer singles out “Phrygian Ganymede” as most potent, where angelic flurries give way to chaotic piano and growling bass, making it one of the best songs on Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?. The opening track and “Orchard” are also highlighted for their soaring strings and bucolic guitar, marking them as other best tracks on the record. The tone is celebratory and slightly wary, praising the album’s lush chamber textures while noting it teeters between sanctuary and rearguard action.
Key Points
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The best song is “Phrygian Ganymede” for its dramatic shifts from angelic flurries to chaotic piano and growling bass.
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The album’s core strengths are its lush chamber arrangements and ability to create sanctuary-like music away from dancefloors.
Themes
Critic's Take
The Soft Pink Truth’s Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? finds its best tracks in the luminous “Phrygian Ganymede” and the golden shimmer of “Orchard”, where Herrmannian strings and Bill Orcutt’s guitar furnish moments that stop you in your tracks. The record also rewards repeat listens for the harp-led calm of “Time Inside the Violet” and the buoyant opener “Mere Survival Is Not Enough”, even if Daniel’s curious detour into chamber textures sometimes lets the album recede into background hush. In short, the best songs on Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? are those that balance cinematic grandeur with intimate detail, producing the record’s clearest pleasures and small sanctuaries.
Key Points
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“Phrygian Ganymede” is best for its ambitious, Hitchcockian strings and sustained cinematic ambition.
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The album’s core strength is creating intimate, queer sanctuary through avant chamber arrangements and moments of luxuriant stillness.
Themes
Critic's Take
The Soft Pink Truth’s Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? feels like a deliberate promenade from dancefloor to concert hall, and its best songs underline that shift. The record opens with “Mere Survival Is Not Enough”, which swells from silence into strings and jittery synths, making it one of the best tracks on the album. The 10-minute “Phrygian Ganymede” emerges as a centerpiece - dense, epic and subtly foreshadowed by saxophone - and stands among the best tracks on Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?. Meanwhile, lighter moments like “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” and “Orchard” showcase sprightly percussion and intimate acoustic flourishes that keep the album feeling human and unacademic.
Key Points
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The best song is the expansive "Phrygian Ganymede" because it is presented as a dense, 10-minute epic and centerpiece.
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The album's core strengths are its orchestral adaptation of electronic textures and its exploration of temporality rendered with pretty, human detail.
Themes
KL
Critic's Take
The Soft Pink Truth’s Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? is presented as a chamber-electronic meditation whose best tracks reveal its strange, tender logic. Chief among them is “Time Inside the Violet”, the lead single whose central piano and strings crystallize the album’s "calm beauty interrupted by panic" sensibility. The record’s collaborative textures—from harp and strings to woodwinds—make songs like “Time Inside the Violet” the standout for listeners seeking the best tracks on Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?. Daniel’s move toward intimacy and a makeshift queer refuge gives those best songs their emotional force and political purpose.
Key Points
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The lead single "Time Inside the Violet" is best because its piano-and-strings centerpiece crystallizes the album’s chamber-electronic hybrid and emotional tension.
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The album’s core strengths are its collaborative chamber textures and its framing of beauty and intimacy as defiant political gestures.
Themes
Critic's Take
In his wry, observant voice Grant Sharples frames The Soft Pink Truth’s Can Such Delightful Times Go on Forever? around a handful of vivid highlights, naming “Mere Survival Is Not Enough” and “Phrygian Ganymede” as touchstones. He lingers on Daniel’s orchestral swells and jittery synths in “Mere Survival Is Not Enough” and the accumulating, dense ambition of the 10-minute “Phrygian Ganymede”, making it easy to answer queries about the best songs on Can Such Delightful Times Go on Forever?. The review reads like a guided tour - admiring the chamber-choir intimacy of “And By And By a Cloud Takes All Away” and the intimate, flickering gestures of “Orchard” - all couched in Daniel’s thoughtful blend of electronics and conservatory textures.
Key Points
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The best song is "Phrygian Ganymede" because the reviewer calls it a dense, 10-minute epic and highlights its ambitious dual tribute.
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The album's core strengths are its fusion of classical textures and electronic elements, and thoughtful collaboration that probes temporality.