Send "Langhorne Slim " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pastemagazine |
 Remember the ’70s, when folksingers like Cat Stevens wrote songs about leaving the past behind? When melodies didn’t have to be complicated and one-syllable words rhymed with other one-syllable words? When almost every song was a singalong? Those were the days. On Be Set Free, Langhorne Slim perfectly captures the lyrical simplicity of bygone times with straightforward lines like, “I don’t want to break your heart, but I probably will.” His rowdy band dresses up hummable melodies with pianos, bells, accordions, shouts and hollers, and the production adds just enough polish to what, at heart, is a collection of folk songs. It’s a modern-day Tea For The Tillerman—“Be Set Free” is Slim’s “On The Road To Find Out,” and “Boots Boy” (“You can have my boots boy, I don’t wear them / You can have my suit, I don’t care / Don’t need a lot of money, don’t want just anybody / I want you / Nobody but you”) his “Hard Headed Woman.”Slim Pickins By Andy Whitman Langhorne Slim’s shtick—the ramblin’ folkie troubadour, with accompanying nasal yelp and requisite weather-beaten cap—is a tough act to sell. You’re only competing with Woody Guthrie and the young Bob Dylan. The songs had better be good. On his third full album, Slim adds some pop sheen to the expected folkie raggedness, but Woody can rest easy, and Bob doesn’t need to think twice. These are mediocre, and sometimes painfully inept, approximations of classic lovelorn folk tunes. At a short 38 minutes, the times aren’t changin’ fast enough....full text |
| Allmusic |
| Langhorne Slim started out as a solo act before he worked his way up to a pair of accompanists, but it would seem he's gotten over the whole notion of minimal accompaniment on his third full-length album, Be Set Free. Produced by Chris Funk of the Decemberists, Be Set Free features Langhorne and his usual sidekicks Jeff Ratner on bass and Malachi DeLorenzo on drums, but there's also a wealth of guest musicians, most notably Sam Kassirer on a variety of keyboards, Funk taking on a handful of fretted instruments, and a small battalion of backing vocalists, horn players, and string musicians. Be Set Free sounds significantly more polished than Langhorne's previous studio sessions, with the arrangements and additional accompanists bringing a range of dynamics to the melodies that wasn't quite there before (certainly not on this scale), but even though this album sounds like Cinemascope compared to the more modest framings of Langhorne's previous LPs, the additional colors and patterns have been artfully applied and they serve to add to the tenor of his tunes rather than distracting from them; if this album was conceived on a (relatively) grand scale, it's never overdone. For all the imagination of the arrangements and production, Be Set Free is still clearly designed to honor Langhorne's songwriting, and the charm and passionate honesty of his lyrics are still at the root of these performances, with the arrangements reinforcing the passion of his vocals instead of drowning them out. (Langhorne also sounds more expert and sure of himself as a vocalist than ever before.) Be Set Free isn't a game-changing album so much as it confirms that Langhorne Slim's talent can work within a wider framework than he's used in the past and still honor his gifts, and it's an impressive, pleasurable work....full text |
| Popmatters |
| When everyman minstrel Langhorne Slim opens his third album of folk-pop, Be Set Free,, with a line about a morbid identity crisis, it’s more of a misleading lyrical gesture than a statement of mid-career crisis. “I don’t wanna die, but I don’t yet know where I belong”, Slim sings on “Back to the Wild”, the shimmering opener to an album that actually finds Slim right where he belongs: crooning, yelping, and shouting his way through infectiously catchy folk-romps. If there’s an identity crisis going on here, it sure doesn’t show in the music, which features some of Slim’s most self-assured compositions to date. From finger-picked folk anthems to honky-tonk bar rockers to toe-tapping pop songs to nostalgic piano ballads sprinkled with oldies station pixie dust, the freewheeling Slim paints his identity as a friendly neighborhood vagabond all over every genre that takes his fancy. As a result, Be Set Free is a triumphant, sprawling affair likely to please a wide variety of demographics: neo-folkies, Dylan-heads, parents that still listen to their Jackson Browne records, and even pop fans that like their sing-along choruses to come with a side of serious songwriting craftsmanship. Slim’s voice, which ranges from the gravelly-crack of Bob Dylan to the emotive, pinched-nose delivery of Neil Young, ties the whole package together in a neat, pretty bow. ...full text |
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