playlouder.com
8th may 2001
iain moffat

Which just leaves us dipping in Vinyl Only Corner, where we find our old chum Tears In X-Ray Eyes, touting his latest double-A on Test Tube, and a fine old farrago it is too. He doesn't feel like entertaining, he informs us on 'Open Wide' (a song that contains our favourite new line of the week in "The conversation is stretching back my skin". Yum! Sauce! etc), yet still he does, sounding like an accidental minstrel whose budget didn't quite reach a Hammond and so he's made do with a third-hand Wurlitzer and a glockenspiel instead. Must've spent all the money on the hauntingly glamorous 'London's Most Unwanted Child' instead, but it was well worth it; it sounds like the sort of thing you'd hear round Massive Attack's house on Christmas Day. Ho ho and, indeed, ho...

what's on
may 2001

Tremolous and pensively climatic songs from the pen and larynx of Tim Closs. Very reminiscent of Momus vocally with added Flaming Lips and Belle and Sebastian elements, with a richly cinematic feel. Pressed on white vinyl just for the hell of it.

gair rhydd (cardiff university newspaper)
7th may 2001
noel gardner

You can tell he's an awkward bastard because he's given himself the sort of name that makes him sound like one of those 'Romo' bands of 1995 (think hard... Melody Maker, sub-Pet Shop Boys, unlovely men in rouge. Oh come on!). Whereas in fact Tears In X-Ray Eyes, aka Tim Closs, deals hands of miserablist minor-chord slowly-winding gloom. Vocals appropriate a jilted-at-the-altar Bowie; the two tracks here, especially B-side London's Most Unwanted Child, sound like Low playing mid-80s British indie. Available on thick white 7-inch vinyl only. If you still hold a candle for this sort of thing, it's exemplary.

degrees north (sunderland university newspaper)
may 2001
jeff nottingham

Tim Closs returns with his second limited edition, vinyl only, double a-side. I'm not sure it's a very good way to sell records. I can't fault the music though, it's captivating both lyrically and musically. A back to basics sound that needs nothing else to sell itself. 4/5