''Falling Off the Sky'' is an album by

the dB's The dB's are an American alternative Rock music, rock and power pop group, who formed in New York City in 1978 and first came to prominence in the early 1980s. Their debut album ''Stands for Decibels'' is acclaimed as one of the great "lost" pow ...

, released on June 12, 2012, on

Bar/None Records Bar/None Records is an independent record label based in Hoboken, New Jersey. Early history Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Having previously worked in pirate radio, booking and promoting bands in his n ...

. It is the first album of new material released by the band since 1987.

Critical reception

''Falling Off the Sky'' received generally favorable reviews from critics; according to review aggregator website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it has a score of 73 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Among the most favorable reviews was one written by

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

, who gave the album an A−. In his review, Christgau described the lead track, "That Time Is Gone", as "as rousing as anything in their olsapple and Stamey'sbook." A more mixed review by

Stephen Deusner Stephen M. Deusner is an American music critic and part-time record store clerk who lives in Bloomington, Indiana. A native of Tennessee, he has contributed to Pitchfork Media (including ''the Pitchfork 500''), ''Salon'', '' CMT'', ''American Songwr ...

stated that on the album, the dB's "don't redefine themselves as defiantly as they once did".

Track listing

Personnel

Personnel taken from ''Falling Off the Sky'' liner notes. The dB's *

Peter Holsapple Peter Livingston Holsapple (born February 19, 1956) is an American musician who, along with Chris Stamey, formed the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, ...

– vocals, guitar;

Wurlitzer piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from 1954 to 1983. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptually similar to ...

(2); piano, organ (6); percussion (3) *Gene Holder – bass guitar *

Chris Stamey Christopher Charles Stamey (born December 6, 1954) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. After a brief time playing with Alex Chilton, as well as Mitch Easter under the name Sneakers, Stamey formed The dB's with Peter ...

– vocals, guitar; organ (1); percussion (9);

tubular bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...

, cello, double bass (10); string and woodwind arrangements *

Will Rigby Will Rigby is an American musician known for being the drummer of jangle pop band the dB's, a band he formed along with Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, and Gene Holder in the late 1970s. He has also performed with many other artists and has rele ...

– drums, percussion, vocals; organ solo (4) Additional musicians *

Mitch Easter Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums from 1981 through 1984, and as frontm ...

– additional guitars (2, 3, 10), guitar solo (12), percussion (10) *Charles Cleaver – Wurlitzer piano (2, 8, 10), piano (11) *Brannon Bollinger – baritone saxophones (2) *Brett Harris – backing vocals (2, 4, 8–11) *Al Strong – trumpet (3) *Peter Lamb – saxophone (3) *Jeff Crawford – backing vocals (4, 8–11) *Karen Galvin – violin (4, 5, 8, 10, 11) *Kaitlin Wolfberg – violin (4, 5, 8, 10, 11) *Josh Starmer – cello (4–6, 8, 10, 11) *Gabriel Pelli – violin (6) *Laura Thomas – violin (6, 7) *Lisa Lachot – flute (6, 8) *Emma Nadeau – French Horn (6) *Corey Sims – trumpet (8) *Dale Baker – percussion (10) Technical personnel *The dB's – production *Mitch Easter – additional production, mixing (3, 8) *

Scott Litt Scott Warren Litt (born March 10, 1954) is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most ...

– additional production, mixing (1, 9) *Ian Schreier – mixing (2, 10, 12) *Tim Harper – mixing (11) *Chris Stamey – mixing (4–7) *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering at Sterling Sound

References

{{Authority control 2012 albums Bar/None Records albums The dB's albums