8/10, Album of the Month. Shunning electric guitar shred and garage distortion in favor of languid fingerstyle acoustic music and heavy-lidded balladry, these 12 tracks feel on the surface light and casual, but scrutinized up close betray a deep artistry and care. It’s the sort of record that makes you wonder: where, exactly, has he been hiding this stuff? It’s clear that on Long Lost Solace Find, he’s uncovered a rich seam of songwriting, classic-sounding yet modern, unquestionably nostalgic in temperament but undeniably vital despite it. It’s beautifully recorded… unfurling with an unhurried spaciousness that feels like the perfect foil for Polizze’s casual, dizzy lyricism. Even when he’s at his most melancholy and hangdog, the songs themselves gleam like diamonds.
– Uncut
4 stars. For anyone who digs the Philly scene of the War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, and Steve Gunn, Mike Polizze might be a comforting new discovery. Polizze has spent the last decade or so journeying from obliterating noise to slacker-pop, gradually peeling off layers of fuzz to expose a deft songcraft. That process has culminated in this very sweet debut… reminiscent of a bucolic J. Mascis and adroit Britfolk fingerpickers, and capable of a catchy alterna-hit when the mood takes him.
– MOJO
The sound of the record approaches bliss: the sonic equivalent of a beer on the beach at sunset. It flows like a well-conceived song cycle and moves gracefully from one thought to the next. In [“Sit Down”], he describes sunlight as “laser beams through my hair,” which seems like a good summary of the world he builds through songs: intimate, warm, a little uncanny.
– Pitchfork
I love this music so much. ‘Revelation’ is the summer jam I needed, and this is absolutely my summer record. I’m not just sayin’ that because Mike is my bro, and I happened to play and sing on it. I’m so proud and honored to have made the cut on five jams… So many of these songs give me chills. I think we all could use these catchy, beautiful jams in our respective quarantines (physical and mental)… I needed this shit! Mike Polizze is the guitar god of Philly, and Jeff Zeigler (recording king) knocked this one out the park, baby.
– Kurt Vile
Sun-kissed… Lovely, ruminative songs like “Wishing Well” and “Revelation” emerge like — well, like a revelation.
– The Philadelphia Inquirer
Exquisitely beautiful… It has the wondrous, enveloping quality of a daydream.
– American Songwriter
Mike Polizze turns the hiss down to a hum and lets his soft side shine through. With fellow Philly luminary Kurt Vile in tow, he shapes [the album] into an azure swoon lit on clear skies, yet burdened with a slightly heavy heart. Polizze finds his own faded grace in his new digs, shaking off the yolk of fuzz for a surprisingly clear view of pop that’s littered with strums, horns, and sing-along choruses… The record cools the swamp of summer into the sweater-hugged nights of fall from the moment the needle hits the platter.
– Raven Sings the Blues
A set of laid-back, low-drama folk strummers that embody the heat and drift and idle musings of late summer under quarantine. There is a sense of every note being where it should be, glowingly back-lit and carefully arranged.
– Dusted
A-. Folk-rocky with occasional country-ish tendencies and a decided post-indie undercurrent. The music fits in with Paradise of Bachelors’ general thrust very nicely, but I’ll add that folks into Purple Mountains might dig, and that at a few points this reminded me of a less bent and more laidback and fingerpickin’ Miighty Flashlight. Swell.
– Long Live Vinyl
Beautifully melancholic… A craftsman whose easy mastery hides the years of work it took to get there. The hooks seem to never stop.
– Pitchfork
Idiosyncratic and remarkable … unwashed, long-haired pop strum.
– NPR Music
