"The album is so packed with ear-catching moments that it's difficult to properly catalog them. The tinny boom-baps on "Linger On" flow forward and backward, as if stepping in and out of a "timestile" in Christopher Nolan's thriller Tenet. The percussive "Terrible Monsters" is texturally captivating, with marimbas providing a bony foundation. And the aforementioned "Robin Hood," an earworm of mammoth proportions, is a shape-shifting jam that seesaws between plodding verses and a twinkling chorus."
- Seven Days, March 2021
"Shortly before Covid hit, I saw David Byrne’s Broadway show American Utopia. When I listen to new-weird-Americana duo Strangled Darlings’ “Terrible Monsters,” I picture Byrne’s army of barefooted percussionists marching around on stage. From the ominous chorus – “All that I want, and it’s good, is the terrible monsters” – to the propulsive rhythms waterfalling around the melody, it’s peak Byrne. Add some nonsense words and you’d get “
- Country Tracks, Best Songs of 21
Best Local Recordings of 2019 : “Cutting commentary and daring arrangements make this album a thought-provoking listen.”
-Seven Days, December 2019
‘American Pageant’ places many of society's ills and controversial figures center stage: televangelist Joel Osteen, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Eli Lilly and Company, producer Harvey Weinstein, police brutality, social media, and the opiate crisis, to name a few. "Homeless," a self-reflective tune about living the Walmart lifestyle, cleverly references "Little Boxes," a 1960s folk tune made popular by Pete Seeger. Throughout, Anderly and Veech weave American strife into sharply appointed, genre-straddling songs. -Seven Days, May 2019
The pair makes music that rambles like a road film, rattles like a Pentecostal sermon and romances you like a tipsy dance with a lover.
-- Columbia Tribune, March 2015
...descending bass riff and some cookin' mandolin
-- Folio, December 2014
Take what you think you know about folk music, Americana and the likes of that, crumple it up and set it on fire or something. Strangled Darlings have expert song writing, exquisite musicianship, funky beats, flowing melodies and a twisted sense of humor.
-- New England Concert Reviews, October 2014
Strangled Darlings have created a brand of swampy, darkly grooving, foot stomping music
--Anchorage Press, March 2013
Portland’s Strangled Darlings bring punk intensity to folk pop and completely bust the mold, creating smart, irreverent tunes using classic acoustic folk instrumentation paired with rough, impassioned vocals. Think of it rather like the Clash with an indie Northwestern American aesthetic.
-- Popmatters, May 2012
Strangled Darlings, have an edgy approach to folk and Americana. The band’s unique style and sound easily can captivate listeners.
-- The Aquarian, May 2012
Strangled Darlings are creepy in the most endearing kind of way, like a monster from an old horror movie you can’t help but empathize with. The duo finds their influence in the roots of Americana and folk and drives them through themes of insanity, betrayal and the supernatural to create dark, yet surprisingly charming music.
-The Deli, July 2012
Veech’s voice is full of passion and ruggedness, mixing folk with punk and creating a new genre that makes a statement and stands tall.
-Magnet Magazine, 2012
Impressively, you can tell the band studied up on their traditional values to be able to break them because if you dissect their songs, you feel a strong sense of roots coming from their banjo-blazing, mandolin strumming, supernatural howling. Add in a keen sense of lyricism and what a mind bender. It’s enough to heat up those cool Portland nights filled with strong coffee and brazen whiskey.
-Zaptown, 2012
By country, we’re not talking that prefab shit they roll out of Nashville like hamburgers on a fast-food assembly line. Instead, the good underground, gothic stuff. Like the Gun Club. Like Trailer Bride.
-Straight, 2012 (Vancouver, BC)
It's a quirky, fun, intoxicating slice of Portland's bazaar-busker world.
-- Portland Mercury, May 2012
Self-described as literary doom pop, the duo of George Veech and Jessica Anderly juxatpose boisterous instrumentation with exacting sociopolitical lyricism in ways that fashionably blur the lines of blues and bluegrass.
-- The Deli Magazine, May 2012
With its new record, Red Yellow & Blue, the group hones its complex influences—including the aforementioned opera, plus a little rock, country, jig, plus gypsy jazz and funk for good measure—into its most satisfying and (gasp) fun record yet.
-- Willamette Week, May 2012
Strangled Darlings are one of the few folk duos that deftly mix genres, emotions and observations to not only share what they’re thinking, but help you better clarify your own impressions. Isn’t that what great music is all about?
--American Songwriter, March 2011
The two perform folksy early 20th century inspired music with just a touch of 21st century groove creating songs that range from gorgeous to quirky and evokes those pre-radio days when a traveling troubadour had to carry a blade, a gun and a grin if he wanted to make it safely from town to town.
--- Portland Tribune, March 2011
Dig into the lyrics, though, and there's a lot to chew on. The band's latest album, "The Devil in Outer Space: An Operetta," weaves a dense tale of a cancer-ridden, heartbroken man named Stuart with songs inspired by Gabriel García Márquez's short stories and a title track that imagines Beelzebub commandeering God's spacecraft.
--- Oregonian March 2011
Seemingly unrelated genres converge into a dark and twangy mix of twisted freak folk, Romany melodies, Cab Calloway saunter, Tom Waits murder ballads and everything in between, all hammered out on a mix of traditional and modern instruments.
---Williamette Week March 2011
The trio produced an entertaining Gothic, almost carnival-inspired sound. At one point in the evening, Jessica Anderly, the cellist, played a tune using a bow and saw, then Sharon Cannon wowed the crowd by playing her violin while hula hooping throughout an entire song.
--- Be Portland, Aug 2011
We’ll cut to the chase – if you think Tom Waits is the bee’s knees, you’ll love this show.
--- Portland Tribune, June 2011
The duo intertwines classical music with modern indie stylings. Veech whispers about ghosts in the attic. Suddenly, the song is no longer about a woman with the perfect family.
--- Ethos Magazine, April 2011
[the] music can feel organic and untethered, but these numbers, perhaps appropriately, have the handcrafted aspect of American quilts — colorful, stitched-to-each-other artifacts pieced together using the fabrics of dozens of other, older garments. This allows for a richness in texture, a sense of history and a sort of comfortable resonance with the past. Staccato circus-carny rap songs follow sweeping gypsy waltzes with Tom Waits edginess and the gangling grace of a Decemberists narrative.
--- Sleeping Hedgehog, March 2011
Imagine Tom Waits and Jack White drinking in a Romani dive bar, then haphazardly mixing DNA. That miracle baby might resemble PDX art-folk quartet Strangled Darlings.
-- Willamette Week, September 2009
This is no gentle folk act and that Strangled Darlings is not afraid to take risks.
-- The Oregonian, October 2009