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The album was listed at #41 on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2012, saying " The palette ranges from Nineties grunge to wintry front-porch lamentation to Beatles bounce, tied together by a sweet Southern-bro sentimentality."[5]
Upon its release, The Carpenter by The Avett Brothers received generally positive reviews from most music critics.[6] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 24 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[6] First and foremost, The Carpenter has received positive or favorable reviews from the following publications: About.com, AllMusic, Alt Rock Live, Alternative Press, American Songwriter, The Austin Chronicle, The A.V. Club, Christianity Today, diffuser.fm, Entertainment Weekly, The Lantern, musicOMH, Paste, PopMatters, Pitchfork, Punknews.org, Rolling Stone and Taste of Country. On the other hand, The Carpenter got mixed reviews from the following publications: Consequence of Sound, The Guardian, The Independent, The Milk Carton, NME, Pop 'stache and Thank Folk for That.
Seth Avett – Lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, organ
Scott Avett – Lead and backing vocals, banjo, acoustic guitar, piano
Bob Crawford – Upright and electric bass, backing vocals
– Cello
Jacob Edwards - Drums, percussion
Additional Musicians
Lenny Castro - Percussion on all songs excluding "A Father's First Spring"
Benmont Tench - Organ on "The Once & Future Carpenter", "A Father's First Spring", "Life", "Paul Newman vs. The Demons", "Through My Prayers", Mellotron on "A Father's First Spring", Harmonium on "Through My Prayers", Piano on "Winter In My Heart"
Chad Smith - Drums on "Live & Die", "Down With The Shine", "Paul Newman vs. The Demons"