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10.0
17335
10.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
One of the great, poetically inspiring burnout albums for our new time
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9.0
17582
9.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
The whole album is a gorgeous mess, and you’ll immediately want to be dragged through it all over again
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9.0
17583
9.0 |
Prefix
Stevens has done the impossible yet again: He’s released another album that's both genre-defining and genre-defying
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8.9
17580
8.9 |
Beats Per Minute
The Age of Adz does nothing but solidify Stevens’ position as indie rock’s most beloved and foremost purveyor of orchestral chamber-pop
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8.4
17600
8.4 |
Pitchfork
Another long-form work that requires-- and rewards-- time and devotion
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8.0
17607
8.0 |
Scotland on Sunday
Somewhere between The Flaming Lips at their most esoteric and Grizzly Bear on a weird space trip
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8.0
17908
8.0 |
Rave Magazine
This ought to be balm to the ears of Stevens’s legion of fans, and may just redeem him in the eyes of listeners who found Illinois a little too twee
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8.0
18217
8.0 |
Q
Dazzling with its intensity. Print edition only
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8.0
17131
8.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
The Age of Adz will divide not just audiences but individuals, making them itch for the comfort of Stevens’ banjo and unflustered, literary demeanor on the one hand, while making them thankful for his honesty and ambition on the other
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8.0
17457
8.0 |
Eye Weekly
Sufjan Stevens applies electronics to his densely orchestral, six-minute songs
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8.0
17495
8.0 |
The Guardian
However out-there the music gets, however harrowing the lyrics become, there's usually an incredible tune that goes some way towards sugaring the pill
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8.0
17505
8.0 |
The Independent
It's a massive, obsessive, complex work which seeks to peel away the protective skin to bare Stevens' naked, often conflicted, emotional state – and isn't that one of the prime concerns of art?
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8.0
17515
8.0 |
Evening Standard
His gift for melody survives all the embellishment
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8.0
17542
8.0 |
Daily Telegraph
The computer jiggery-pokery is an exhilarating, innovative whim that cannot mask Stevens’ heartfelt lyricism and stunning pop orchestration
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8.0
17548
8.0 |
The Observer
Finds Stevens back on track with lengthy, glitchy, almost R&B-derived work designed to confound memories of Stevens the orchestral-folk pin-up
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8.0
17552
8.0 |
Independent on Sunday
Sounds for all the world like a Sufjan Stevens album – part pop, part performance art, part mad professor. How he makes them is irrelevant now. The man can do no wrong
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8.0
17561
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
An audacious, eminently enjoyable offering from a singer whose deep reserves of curiosity and invention show little sign of dwindling
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8.0
17380
8.0 |
State
The Age of Adz should catch the attention of those who thought that Stevens’ previous work was a little too ‘fluffy’
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8.0
17225
8.0 |
The Irish Times
It's all either insanely self-indulgent or a work of semi-genius. We'll give Stevens the benefit of the doubt this time
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7.5
17632
7.5 |
The Line Of Best Fit
This album is a sumptuous mix of lo-fi percussion, off-kilter beats and sweeping instrumentation that have re-invigorated Stevens’ sound
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7.0
17575
7.0 |
BBC
The Age of Adz is a record to admire, rather than to love
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7.0
17402
7.0 |
NME
Just enough moments of heart-stopping gorgeousness to foot the bill for its dizzying excesses. Print edition only
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7.0
17367
7.0 |
Spin
Unspools over a significantly greater amount of time - 75 minutes - than the material warrants
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6.5
17432
6.5 |
Bowlegs
Album closer ‘Impossible Soul’ is a robotic piece of heartfelt song-writing as good as anything we have heard from Stevens
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6.0
17177
6.0 |
Mojo
These songs seem heart-on-sleeve, self-revealing, even gushy. Print edition only
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6.0
17185
6.0 |
Uncut
When he calls off the artillery, The Age Of Adz can be stunning
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6.0
17537
6.0 |
The Fly
For a man with such genuine ability to enrapture at every turn, there’s far too much that simply washes over
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6.0
17864
6.0 |
The Quietus
Stevens seems stuck between a rock and a hard place, trying to please the faithful while at the same time needing to stretch himself creatively
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6.0
17602
6.0 |
PopMatters
The Age of Adz is occasionally transfixing, but overall inconsistent
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5.0
17625
5.0 |
No Ripcord
The Age of Adz is a major misfire from an artist of uncommon depth and talent
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4.0
17562
4.0 |
musicOMH
This is an extravagant and undisciplined album that is nearly impossible to digest
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