4 STARS = Excellent
author: Charlotte Observer
"...Although "Novels" fits under the ever-expanding Americana banner, it is as adventurous as Carson himself. Horn blasts seem to signal westward expansion. Others, like a gentle "Save Me" chorus, contain smart pop sensibilities. Others exude jazzy freedom. Still, it's the kind of album you absorb sitting in the dark while sipping whiskey. You really have to listen to appreciate the nuances and storytelling..." - Courtney Devores, Charlotte Observer
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"...it's no stretch calling it marvelous..."
author: Creative Loafing
"The Columbia-based songwriter – aka, Chris Smith – delivers a 17-song concept album/character study of frontiersman Kit Carson, and it's no stretch calling it marvelous. Ten Cent American Novels will be lumped into the alt-country bin, but as a horde of guest musicians attests, there's much more going on here. Smith's tight, sparse narratives about Carson's life – a conflicted character at the knife-tip of Manifest Destiny – are infused with a cinematic high-and-lonesome feel or frontier town swagger. He sings like Nick Drake, and has assembled a Sufjan Stevens-like band – horns, reeds, strings – that pushes the narrow borders of twang into new territories." - John Schacht, Creative Loafing
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"...ingenious in its delivery and substance..."
author: The State Newspaper
"...the audacious new album...is ingenious in its delivery and substance...to fully understand and engage the impeccable details, the album must be heard to completion. But like Smith's previous record, 2005's "Dead Letters," there are some stunning songs that require replay...It might be titled "Ten Cent Novels" but this story - a creation as boundless as venturing into the West once was - is priceless."
- Otis Taylor, The State, Oct 12, 2007
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"...smart, cinematic songscape..."
author: Free Times
"...Novels is yet another heartbreaking work of staggering genius from Smith, equal parts sweeping documentary and smart, cinematic songscape..."
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