'The Scarsouls, the Karlovac/Duga Resa-based "gang of seven", have debuted with an album that is bound to become a much talked-about item in the Croatian press during the next few weeks and months. The album was published by Dirty Old Town, which also issued a CD by the respectable and exportable Bambi Molesters. The first pleasant surprise of the album is the fact that The Scarsouls' music does not lag behind the current trends, that they are not playing in the nineties what others had already recycled in 1989, which is pretty common a phenomenon among Croatian bands. Their album "Waiting", at least upon the initial contact, is most readily definable within the boundaries of the very trendy "Americana" production, although it has not much to do with country & western, which served as the basis of the original proponents of the genre. Though the album is very American in its instrumental component (the fact has already been noted in reviews of their demos - standing somewhere in between the American Music Club, the Walkabouts, even the legends of the 70es, such as Neil Young and Gram Parsons), a bit of closer attention reveals an atmosphere indicating the (un)intentional influence of the British kings of depression, Joy Division. The Scarsouls are from Karlovac and Duga Resa, but nothing much would have been different had their, in the instrumental sense, predominantly elegiac, acoustical, and, textually mostly melancholic material been created in, for example, Belleville, southern Illinois. By the same token, had the very effective cover photo been attributed to an author who took pictures traveling through, say, Arizona, no one would have guessed that it was in fact the horizon behind the Karlovac Equestrian Club. The fact that without prior knowledge no one could guess that this band comes from Croatia is precisely one of the greatest qualities of The Scarsouls, at the same time being also one of its greatest curses. This good a material would guarantee decent circulation in the States, but in Croatia it leads only to the cult status and praise in the press.'
(Tihomir Ivka, Karlovacki list, Karlovac, Feb. 2, 1999)
'Their first album, "Waiting", unabashedly leaning on the poetics of the Walkabouts and the Tindersticks, with its "hermetical" expressions and lyrics in English (which is by no means very marketable in Croatia), as well as with the depressive atmosphere, can hardly count on any kind of support from the Croatian promotional media. 'The album has its share of problematic spots and elements, but the overall effect of the twelve songs is more than positive. The Scarsouls are really not slaves to the rigid genre clichés and adopted elements, although their atmospheric folk-rock with quite a few psychedelic touches really does initiate associative connections. Though one could safely bet on the lousy commercial effect of their debut album, The Scarsouls (as well as their independent label Dirty Old Town) can be satisfied, because the publication of the hermetical debut that is consistently uncommercial surely is a great feat in itself.'
(Zlatko Gall, Feral Tribune, Split, Feb. 8, 1999)
'The Scarsouls' album "Waiting" marks the beginning of their turbulent and uncertain voyage across the waters of genre-mutation,which, in the case of this Karlovac-based band with three years of experience, has proven to be, in the least, a truly interesting discographic step. Combinig the rock matrix with acoustic atmospheric music and psychedelic American folk, The Scarsouls boldly walked away from all Croatian pop and rock standards.'
(Srdjan Brajcic, Novi list, Rijeka, Feb. 26, 1999)
'The Scarsouls come from Karlovac, they sing in English, and their debut album, recorded for the ever more agile label Dirty Old Town, is a commendable attempt at graduating from a school whose teachers are notoriously dark types like the Tindersticks and their lot. The result is an accordingly somber collection of funeral marches that at times sound interesting, but are sometimes merely pathetic.'
(Denis Leskovar, Vecernji list, Zagreb, Feb. 26 1999)
'This is one of those Croatian bands that the old, incapable reviewing faggots are not going to praise properly only because it has not been published by other incapable publishing faggots, who are all, together, responsible for the complete degrading of the Croatian rock'n'roll scene. The Scarsouls come from Karlovac, they have seven members and have been around for three years. Their album "Waiting" has really come out of the blue, since nobody had ever heard of them before that. The opening number is the heavily dark "War Horse", while the second song, "The One I Love", continues on an equally depressing note. But only a song later, in "I Wanna Be Happy", where Her Majesty the Melody is being introduced for the first time, and also in "Things Can Happen", with its really cute violin solo, it becomes obvious that this band really has some interesting ideas up its sleeve. But the thing that really makes the album a positive step forward are the songs from "Pinewood Walk" on: including the mandolin and the recitation. And while some of it may remind us, at least partly, of Stuart Staples, the music of The Scarsouls has no connection whatsoever with the Tindersticks, so often attributed to them, by some of the old, incapable reviewing faggots, as a direct influence. The living proof of the fact that their choice was acoustic, ambiental folk is the excellent instrumental piece "Instrumental Story", as well as the title number, "Waiting", leading up to the high point of the album, "Nothing's New", with the female background vocal, and to the more than decent, walkaboutsy "The Story of My Life" and "Hard to Bury".
(Ivan Ramljak, Nomad, March 1999)