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Spinvis

Spinvis

2002

Spinvis

Album Summary

Spinvis is the debut album by Dutch music project Spinvis, the one-man band of singer-songwriter Erik de Jong. Released on 1 May 2002 when De Jong was 41 years old, the album received strong reviews from the Dutch music press and was seen as one of the best albums of the year. It was supported by three singles. It was certified Gold in the Netherlands in 2006. Oor named it the best album from the Netherlands of the 21st century.

Wikipedia

Rating

2.85

Votes

59

Distribution

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Reviews

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Sep 29 2025
4

For the second Dutch entry on the user list we get the debut album of Spinvis. It is an collection of strange indie pop songs with introvert lyrics. For listeners not understanding the lyrics it is probably a mediocre album and a bit boring full of inadequate vocal performances. If you understand te lyrics most of these are quite touching. For example "Ronnie gaat naar huis" about someone leaving an institution going back to the outside world. The only lacking this quality is "Handige Tante - Jonge Met Geld".

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Oct 01 2025
4

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Bagagedrager, Vook ik vergeet, Herfst en nieuwegein

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Oct 01 2025
4

This was pretty cruisy. Definitely worse things out there. 4/5.

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Oct 19 2025
4

That was a good suggestion for the list. Not my language at all so I didn’t understand a thing sung. However, from listening to it you can tell it seemed awesome. For some reason for me it evoked with a Sparklehorse or Eels at times.

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Sep 29 2025
3

Musically I really like this. But, and I feel bad saying this, the Dutch language just doesn't sound especially pleasant to my ears. 3 stars.

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Oct 18 2025
3

Had nearly zero expectations going into this, and have little thoughts coming out of it, but it is certainly one of those albums you can tell I could've pulled more from if I could understand more than a small pledge to the drummer Mike Clark.

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Nov 07 2025
4

Pretty interesting overall, it's nice to have a someone from this particular of the world (which I think of as Scandanavian-adjacent though I know it's not really the same) eschew the market-friendly choice of singing in English, though of course I couldn't understand a word ad a result. Extra point for the whole middle-aged guy swing at the Art-grail.

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Oct 03 2025
3

Liked the music a lot, if I understood the lyrics it would be much higher I suspect. 3.4

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Oct 14 2025
3

I’m good thanks

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Oct 18 2025
3

The music's pretty chill, like Radiohead-lite. And the singer dude kinda sounds like he's mutter-singing in English then needs to clear his throat and hock a loogie. Then I remember he's singing in another language, and it dawns on me I have no fucking clue what he's singing, or singing about.

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Oct 21 2025
3

Apple Music said this was electronic and maybe it was? Very DUTCH that’s for certain

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Oct 25 2025
3

Dutch is a made up language I never imagined it would sound good in a song I think that was because it is not a possibility But songs are pretty interesting 3

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Oct 30 2025
3

Being a typical American, my exposure to European is language is minimal. I will say the voice went exceptionally well with the music, and I really liked the music

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Oct 31 2025
3

Spreek je Nederlands? "Smalfilm" and "Astronaut" are absolute gems. The rest is pretty good "homemade" pop where DIY methods actually yields to very lush results, astonishingly. I understand why this album made waves in the field of neder-pop. 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums.. 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 52 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 72 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 129 (including this one -- Feel like this one could be placed in a separate book about modern pop rock practiced in other languages than English: the 1001 number feels way too small if you have to take all these other international acts into account) --- Émile. Ça y est, j'ai *enfin* répondu (en deux temps). Tu trouveras ça sous les reviews des disques de Blackalicious et Alexisonfire au dessus.

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Nov 01 2025
3

Nice tunes, reminded me of Stereolab in places

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Nov 02 2025
3

Een solide drie.

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Nov 04 2025
3

Very dreamy music, somewhere between pop, rock and maybe some triphop (ala Massive Attack). Not the best vocalist, a bit too mumbled at times. Lyrics are very introvert.

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Nov 08 2025
3

I like this well enough although I think I would’ve probably liked it more had I understood the lyrics.

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Oct 05 2025
2

Tune wise I like but the language has an ugly tone to it

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Oct 23 2025
2

Yeah, it was ok.

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Oct 26 2025
2

Challenging listen, this was. Foreign language, spacey instrumentals, kind of harsh vocals

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Oct 27 2025
2

“The best Dutch album of the 21st century” produced in 2002. Big call. At least another 97 years to wait for something better!

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