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Bitter taste

1615¬Poor old Sugababes are challenging for our all-time lowest album rating (JLS since you ask). They're on 3.2 so far for their Sweet 7 album¬True¬

Middle of the road

1613¬Moderate reviews so far for the Scottish AOR pop rock singer-songwriter. Into the chart with a 5.5¬True¬

Sufi so good

1607¬The LA post-hip hop rapper's "hallucinogenic head-nod" album meanders gently into the chart with a batch of strong reviews¬True¬

Driving force

1620¬The long-serving Georgia riffmasters enter the chart with a 7.2 for their 8th album of Southern rock¬True¬

Making his mark

1604¬Orcadian folk artist Kris Drever gets a 6.6 rating on his entry into the chart with his second solo album¬True¬

Self help

1602¬The erstwhile nu-ravers have grown up, self-released and self-produced their 2nd album, and reviewers are mostly in favour¬True¬

Playlist Archive

Those we have loved (or quite liked anyway)

9¬False¬
Hidden

These New Puritans

Hidden

Hugely ambitious second release from the English art rock band

Critics average rating

8.0

Label
Domino
Release date
18/01/2010
  1. 10.0 |  Daily Telegraph

    ..a magically bleak, fantastically original record. And, possibly, the first masterpiece of the 2010s
    Read Review

  2. 10.0 |  Observer Music Monthly

    Hidden is one of the most confounding, pretentious and self-consciously intellectual records I've heard in years. It's also one of the most courageous, innovative and rebellious
    Read Review

  3. 9.0 |  Clash

    Showing clear progression and monumental ambition, TNP have crafted a stark and dense knockout performance
    Read Review

  4. 9.0 |  Drowned In Sound

    In the same way Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear set impossibly high standards early last year, so too it goes in 2010; only this time in the unlikely form of four youngsters from the Thames Estuary
    Read Review

  5. 9.0 |  NME

    Genuinely surprising, beautifully wrought and announces TNP as one of the most powerful artistic forces in Britain today.
    Read Review

  6. 9.0 |  music OMH

    This is Muse with a post-punk heart, stamping on the face of prog rock and throwing down the gauntlet to the rest of the decade. Go on, do better than this if you can
    Read Review

  7. 9.0 |  The Fly

    ‘Hidden’ is a bold, ambitious album of carefully crafted chaos, and the first truly great album of 2010
    Read Review

  8. 9.0 |  The Quietus

    These New Puritans have resurfaced with a masterpiece. Hidden is a questing, post-everything collage piece that largely eschews guitars in favour of pummelling beats, brooding electronics and the ominous chanting of a children's choir
    Read Review

  9. 8.2 |  onethirtybpm

    Despite the band’s penchant for grandiose gestures, the album runs a healthy 43 minutes and doesn’t seem to drag at any points. Overall, this is a bold step forward for the band; I can’t wait to hear where they’ll go next
    Read Review

  10. 8.2 |  Pitchfork

    A strikingly inventive and original rock record. Granted, nothing is ever completely new in pop music, but the album freshly synthesizes older ideas (post-rock textures, no-wave skronk, Steve Reich-influenced phasing) and current trends (dubstep's delay, chart pop's stentorian synth lines, global beats)
    Read Review

  11. 8.0 |  Q

    While fiercely odd, it's frequently electrifying. Print edition only

  12. 8.0 |  Uncut

    Difficult to pin down, Hidden is even harder to forget. Print edition only

  13. 8.0 |  The Irish Times

    Hidden ’s magic is in the details – a sharpened blade sound effect here, an ominous oboe line there – which creates an often chilling atmosphere
    Read Review

  14. 8.0 |  Independent on Sunday

    ...positions TNP as possibly our most intellectually challenging group since British Sea Power
    Read Review

  15. 8.0 |  The Times

    There are more ideas here than most bands manage in an entire career
    Read Review

  16. 8.0 |  God Is In The TV

    While not an easy listen, give it some time and an open mind and it is an album you can easily find interest and intrigue in
    Read Review

  17. 8.0 |  Rave Magazine

    Hidden is not a perfect album, but These New Puritans deserve immense praise for breaking from an easy path to deliver a complex and challenging masterpiece
    Read Review

  18. 8.0 |  The Line Of Best Fit

    There’s more than an echo of something tragic and battlefield-esque in this album, and the troubled woodwinds, whirling electro skips and hallucinogenic dancehall echoes that haunt the record make it, like anything progressive, not an easy listen either
    Read Review

  19. 8.0 |  The Skinny

    Pounding, thrumming and pulsing from beginning to end (save for some beautifully sedate arrangements from a brass and woodwind ensemble), Hidden employs bass and percussion like indigenous drums of war
    Read Review

  20. 8.0 |  Eye Weekly

    An intriguing glimpse into songwriter Jack Barnett’s demented psyche
    Read Review

  21. 8.0 |  Tiny Mix Tapes

    The glorious insanity of Hidden is something you won't find anywhere else, and what could make a record a more worthwhile listen than that?
    Read Review

  22. 7.0 |  The Music Fix

    So a brave album then, but not without faults. There are times when tracks reek too much of a rejected score for Assassin's Creed III and where ambition exceeds execution, where the vocals do little beyond sit blandly atop the beats
    Read Review

  23. 7.0 |  Pop Matters

    Hidden stands as a bracingly original statement from a band entirely too new to have this many good ideas. Come December, it may not make any “best of” lists, but it’s certainly one of the most fascinating albums we’re likely to see this year
    Read Review

  24. 7.0 |  Spin

    It's a chilling thrill
    Read Review

  25. 5.0 |  Under The Radar

    Despite the consistently grating vocals and an overall lack of cohesion, the beats make it worth a listen
    Read Review

  26. 4.0 |  State

    Don’t believe the hype folks. Hidden, the second album from this lot from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, is nothing more than a bunch of hipsters putting more energy into sounding like an art rock band than actually making of anything of any real substance
    Read Review

  1. so which art school do you go to wonderdug?
    moving rock music on? stretching our listening experience? don't make me laugh. it's peter gabriel-era genesis without the stupid costumes. although stupid costumes would help TNP, at least we'd have something to laugh about.
    it's pop music. it's not designed to be intellectually challenging, despite what that idiot from OMM says.
    honestly, i despair sometimes. i'm off back to my royal bangs, they know what pop music is for.

    Report abuse

  2. You mean if it's not got surf boy 60s psychedelic vocals and doesn't sound like it was recorded on a 25 year old four track machine then it's just not 2010 enough for you?
    Yes, TNP definitely ARE trying to move rock music on. They're doing something new and they're stretching people's listening experience.
    Come back in a year or two. You might have caught up.

    Report abuse

  3. most intellectually challenging group since BSP?
    most bollocks written in reviews since BSP more like.
    do we really need another sub-radiohead collection of art college smartarses?
    i think not.
    let's move on.

    Report abuse

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Track preview & download

These New Puritans: Hidden

  • Download full album for just £7.99
  • 1. Time Xone £0.79
  • 2. We Want War £0.79
  • 3. Three Thousand £0.79
  • 4. Hologram £0.79
  • 5. Attack Music £0.79
  • 6. Fire–Power £0.79
  • 7. Orion £0.79
  • 8. Canticle £0.79
  • 9. Drum Courts–Where Corals Lie £0.79
  • 10. White Chords £0.79
  • 11. 5 £0.79
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In the loop

1618¬Highly positive early reviews for the latest album of loop-based electronic experiments from the long-standing UK band¬True¬

Book mark

1598¬The US performance artist gets a 6.5 rating on her chart entry with her latest collection of chamber pop¬True¬

No chance

1625¬Severe disappointment among critics at the 4th collection of electro beats and spoken-word lyrics from the hip hop duo. Into the chart with 4.6¬True¬

Maximum impact

1612¬Into the chart with an impressive 7.5 is the 2nd album of minimal indie pop with jazz & electronica overtones from the Oregon duo¬True¬

Split vote

1628¬Only moderate reactions so far to the solo effort about his marriage split from the member of alternative hip hop act Why?¬True¬

Made in China

1619¬A couple of glowing reviews, and one stinker, so far for the artist labelled 'China's Bjork'¬True¬

Mexican waves

1617¬General approval for this concept album about the Mexican-American war from the legendary Irish folkies and equally legendary guitarist¬True¬

Past masters

1614¬As expected, the compilation from one of the most influential indie rock bands of recent years is into the Compilation & Reissues chart with a big score¬True¬