Shovels & Rope wrote the material for
Manticore prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but the experience of being in an extended lockdown mode allowed the duo to reshape the sound and feel of the record. Originally,
Michael Trent and
Cary Ann Hearst intended
Manticore to be an acoustic-based record, something not quite as visceral as their previous albums, serving as a counterpoint to the vivid, adventurous
By Blood in particular. While it carries a sense of intimacy, the finished album is hardly acoustic: it's filled with overdubbed vocal harmonies, keyboard coloring, and interwoven guitars -- instruments that broaden and deepen
Shovels & Rope's attack. The duo deploy this aural expansion on a collection of slow, brooding songs, tunes that reveal their acoustic origins in their deliberate pace. The sense of low-key but heightened melodrama can be alluring thanks to the open-ended arrangements, yet much of
Manticore unfolds at a crawl, so it feels much less visceral than previous
Shovels & Rope albums even if it has a greater emotional range. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine