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Apr 14, 2017AZD marks a triumphant return for Actress.
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Apr 12, 2017After the existential questions of Ghettoville, it feels unfussy and workmanlike. Which isn't to do it down: now that he's back to just getting on with it, Cunningham can once again produce mirage-like moments of beauty like nobody else.
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The WireAug 8, 2017Darran Cunningham's most immediate and body-rocking record to date. [May 2017, p.44]
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May 25, 2017In fully embracing his strengths, Cunningham has delivered his most fully realised work.
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Q MagazineMay 9, 2017He'll never be an easy listen, but for now Actress has found a happier role. [Jul 2017, p.104]
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May 9, 2017Splazsh and R.I.P. remain Cunningham's most novel and creative full-lengths, but this thrill-filled one, whatever it's about, is his most direct.
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Apr 18, 2017AZD quickly and wonderfully makes clear that neither retirement nor creative exhaustion is in the cards quite yet for Actress.
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Apr 17, 2017The contents of AZD are strong enough to stand up on their own, whatever you make of the accompanying screeds.
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Apr 13, 2017If you put in the effort this is one of the most rewarding albums of the year so far, but like pronouncing its title, don’t be surprised if you don’t get it first time.
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Apr 12, 2017Musically, it takes listeners through a dystopian dance-floor dream universe, with the shiny but comforting hand from its cover as our guide.
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Apr 12, 2017For all its artfully-deployed discordance, AZD maintains a musicality that holds the listener close.
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Apr 18, 2017AZD is a slim, sparse electronica record. For all its high and low frequencies, it leaves much of the human audible range empty, space to imagine.
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Apr 19, 2017The result is a mix that is less concept-driven and less unified under a singular identity than previous releases.
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Apr 12, 2017AZD is best when Cunningham provides the contours and shading necessary to make his tracks feel like more than indefinite conceptual loops, when the details of his worlds become tangible and clear. At such moments the album asserts itself powerfully, and avoids the threat of dissolving into its own ether.
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Apr 17, 2017Actress is known to be deliberate and, one might argue, almost ponderous in how he paces his work, but AZD is especially bottom-heavy in concept. Like in an adult store, the best stuff is at the back.
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Apr 13, 2017The more experimental side of the record is where things get really challenging.
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Apr 13, 2017Rather than arcane and austere, though, his fifth album is by turns bleakly beautiful and playfully rampant.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 21
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Mixed: 4 out of 21
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Negative: 3 out of 21
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Jul 18, 2017