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8.0
71732
8.0 |
The Independent
With their trademark melange of rap stylings at their most spikily effective, each track switching between self-promotion, street-crime narrative, social commentary and cosmological speculation as different members take the mic
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8.0
71935
8.0 |
State
The gritty, sampled loops that fans had grown accustomed to have been replaced with more instruments, to create bigger and more slick sound than we have heard before
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8.0
72050
8.0 |
Mojo
A joyous comeback, brimming with big screen music. Print edition only
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7.0
71730
7.0 |
The Music
Probably the best Wu-tang ‘group’ album since the debut
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7.0
71763
7.0 |
Drowned In Sound
The record doesn’t successfully break new ground as much as it reassuringly treads familiar paths
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7.0
71797
7.0 |
The 405
Doesn't quite hit the heights of The W, but it's a considerable improvement on 2007's 8 Diagrams, making it a stellar body of work for a group celebrating their twentieth anniversary
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7.0
71889
7.0 |
NME
It’s a bold, clever album that’s thankfully positioned away from the hip-hop zeitgeist
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6.5
71845
6.5 |
Beardfood
The most fun is to be had with the many references to the glory days
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6.0
71758
6.0 |
The Observer
It’s all accessible, and the likes of Crushed Egos (big shouty chorus, nimble organ-haunted verses) sound as good as back in the day
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6.0
71808
6.0 |
Slant Magazine
No matter what conflicts may be simmering, there's enough sustained talent at work here to keep the usual material feeling fresh
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6.0
71816
6.0 |
Spin
Something is definitely missing on A Better Tomorrow: not necessarily the cryptic slang and mythology, but that RZA and the other members haven't found something to replace what stood them apart from the crowd
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6.0
71772
6.0 |
Exclaim
On paper, all the collaborators (including Rick Rubin, whose fingerprints are somewhere on "Ruckus in B Minor,") are indisputably established in their own right, but for some reason, A Better Tomorrow never really coalesces into a satisfying whole
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6.0
71731
6.0 |
The Guardian
It’s both laconic and shouty and, perhaps fired by all that tension, conjures the swagger of 20 years ago
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6.0
71751
6.0 |
Evening Standard
The sound is fuller and funkier than in their spooky, minimal early days but maintains the old menace on Ron O’Neal and Mistaken Identity
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6.0
71752
6.0 |
The FT
Boom-bap beats are peppered with gunshots, the veteran MCs come out swinging with belligerent verses, noir textures evoke alleyways you don’t want to walk down
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6.0
72052
6.0 |
Q
It's far from perfect, but if this is Exit The Wu-Tang, then they can go out with heads held high. Print edition only
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6.0
71943
6.0 |
The Irish Times
Sounds very much like business as usual, with kung-fu film dialogue, dusty soul samples and some sturdy old-school crew bangers
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5.9
71805
5.9 |
Pitchfork
A record that’s drunk on its own musicality, one that seems to befuddle the very guys rapping on it
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5.8
71755
5.8 |
Consequence Of Sound
While the goodwill is obfuscated by a lack of direction, A Better Tomorrow is made further futile because of the misinformed goal of simply giving the fans another Wu-Tang album
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5.0
72010
5.0 |
Rolling Stone
This is the sound of a team of great fighters competing in an uncomfortable new arena
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4.5
71960
4.5 |
Crack
Considering the context, it’s hard to be convinced by A Better Tomorrow’s overtly sentimental theme
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4.0
71921
4.0 |
The Quietus
This was once a team of unstoppable individuals united by a shared experience, but the Wu-Tang of 2014 is all cliques and alliances, communicating via their managers and magazine interviews
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2.5
71793
2.5 |
A.V. Club
If there’s a better tomorrow waiting for this group of MCs, it doesn’t involve another album together
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