''Civilian'' is the third studio album by

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

band Wye Oak. It was released on March 8, 2011, by

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

in the United States and City Slang in Europe. ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' named ''Civilian'' the best album of 2011.

Release

On February 27, 2011, Wye Oak announced the release of their new album, along with the title track.

Music video

The music video for "Fish" was released on April 8, 2011. On September 2, 2011, Wye Oak released the music video for "Holy Holy". It was directed by Jeremy Johnstone and produced by Greg Beauchamp.

In popular culture

An edited version of the title track of ''Civilian'' was featured in the 2011 trailer for the second season of '' The Walking Dead'' and also the closing scene of the second season episode "

18 Miles Out "18 Miles Out" is the tenth episode of the second season of the post-apocalyptic horror television series '' The Walking Dead''. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on February 26, 2012. The episode was written by Scott M. Gimple a ...

" (2012). "Civilian" was also featured in the final scene of the 13th episode of the North American remake of '' Being Human'' (2011), in the episode "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" of ''

One Tree Hill One Tree Hill may refer to: * "One Tree Hill" (song), a 1987 song by U2 referencing One Tree Hill, New Zealand volcanic peak * ''One Tree Hill'' (TV series), a 2003–2012 American drama series named for the U2 song ** ''One Tree Hill'' (soundtr ...

'' (2011), in the episode "Thy Will Be Done" of '' Underbelly: Badness'' (2012), in the ending scene of the '' Animal Kingdom'' third season episode "

Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

", and in the final scene of the '' Longmire'' season 4 finale "What Happens on the Rez..." (2015), as well in the films ''

Safety Not Guaranteed ''Safety Not Guaranteed'' is a 2012 American science fiction romantic comedy film directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass. The picture was screened at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Scr ...

'' (2012) and '' The Odd Way Home'' (2013).

Critical reception

''Civilian'' was met with "universal acclaim" reviews from critics. At

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

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 81 based on 20 reviews. Tim Sendra of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

said: "The albums sounds brighter and better recorded, Wasner's songs are crisper and more memorable with an extra amount of sadness added, the performances invested with a level of intensity and fiery soul that had only been hinted at before."

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. *

Jenn Wasner Jennifer Lynn Wasner (born April 16, 1986) is an American musician from Baltimore, Maryland. Wasner is best known as one of the founding members of the band Wye Oak, along with Andy Stack. They have performed on tour with notable bands such as ...

– vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Andy Stack – drums, bass, guitar, keys, percussion, production,

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

*Alan Douches – mastering *

John Congleton John Congleton is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, engineer, mixer, writer and musician. In addition to his production work, Congleton has fronted the alternative rock band the Paper Chase, and writes music for a newer project e ...

– mixing *Chris Freeland – engineering *Mickey Freeland – engineering *Michael Patrick O'Leary – cover photo *Cady Bean-Smith – cover design

Charts

References

2011 albums Wye Oak albums City Slang albums Merge Records albums Albums produced by John Congleton {{2010s-indie-rock-album-stub