Tracks:
Eyeliner
Black Umbrellas
Sutures
Technicolor
Spark
A Day Without You
Frost On Wires
Fall
Beatrice In The Otherworld
Ocean

a serene picture of daydreaming through an overwhelmingly emotional and honest melting pot of guitar, piano and heart... creating an atmospheric and mystic experience that is both genuine and mesmerizing. - Magnet

Bathed in gorgeous guitar washes, this effervescent offering is just right for this rainy day, as it would be for hung-over Sundays, drives through tree-lined highways, and lakeside picnics - Blurt

A lush but still subtle dash of moody piano pop, Crushed Stars’ leader Todd Gautreau is a delicate but evocative lyricist whose voice lolls when others roar. There’s no overreaching, no forced bombast, just a supple and elegant explication of pain and sorrow Takes the best of Nick Drake and Ryan Adams and splits the difference right down the middle.- emusic

moody, dark and extremely beautiful. a melodically delicate and enchantingly moody album. a gray, emotional album that eventually makes good on the promise of a rainbow. By all means, let it rain. - The L Magazine

Oft descriptive words associated with Gautreau and his Crushed Stars may relate to the night hours, overcast days, or infinite soundscapes. These words fit — there’s something oddly spacial about the dreamy pop of Crushed Stars, and that’s what makes the band, and an album like Convalescing In Braille work so well. Beyond the chill strums of guitar strings and emotive piano, beyond the shuffle in the percussion, is Gautreau’s beautifully melancholy vocals. A song like “Black Umbrella” can break your heart one moment and lift it above your troubles the next. -Fensepost

a smooth combination of elegant melodies...extremely sincere and incredibly moving... sorrowful perfection -stereo subversion

Eerily brilliant. Textured, soothing, chill-out rock that perfectly suits gray drizzly days or droopy-eyed late nights. ...at once melancholy, nostalgic and cheery -The Observer

Gautreau’s melodies find a way of slowly but surely winding their way into your mind, and his arrangements and atmospherics add just the right amount of tonal color in just the right spots. I’ve mostly listened to this album on long drives, and when the afternoon sun illuminates the empty cornfields and colorful trees as it only can in the Nebraska countryside, well… Convalescing in Braille makes for a pretty nice soundtrack for such scenery.- opus

In a year deluged with jangling guitars and vocals drowning in enough reverb to kill a Olympic swimmers, please summon the strength to listen to Crushed Stars’ Convalescing in Braille with fresh ears. Like The Radio Dept. or, before them, Yo La Tengo, the band’s lonely pop places craft first. Even its simplest moments seem examined for maximum headphones richness: how the lightly clipping drums of “Spark” contrast with singer Todd Gautreau’s distant, wounded vocals; reaching the bottom of of the 10-foot-deep cymbals of “Black Umbrellas”; the firmness of piano keys against warbling synthesizers on “A Day Without You.” It’s less treble-heavy and propulsive than the Radio Dept.’s latest efforts, but the songs also explore feelings of landlocked loneliness. - rawkblog

the songs don’t try to create sonic landscapes, the landscapes just happen as a result of songs that make you wish that nighttime lasted throughout the day. absolutely beaming from hushed sentimentality that seems to be missing in so much popular music today. one my favorite albums of the yearSongs that have the air of a deep sigh on a rainy day. Gautreau sings softly behind a mix of acoustic guitar, sepia piano and brushed drums on “Black Umbrellas,”On “Eyeliner,” a claustrophobic guitar part repeats as other instruments and Gautreau’s voice swirl around over it.- one word titles

Todd Gautreau’s voice is the one you hear in your head as you drift off to sleep. It’s the one you hear when you zone out on a long road trip. It’s your own voice after drinking about 12 beers alone. constructs dreamy songs to suit his voice, breathy confessions that can be uncomfortably honest and always mesmerizing. The low, buzzy groan is an instrument from its own world.