Beams - Matthew Dear
Beams Image
Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.4 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 9 Ratings

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  • Summary: This is the fourth full-length solo release for the Texas-born producer/pop artist.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. musicOMH.com
    Aug 21, 2012
    100
    Beams is an uncompromising, forceful and darkly beautiful album from a formidable musical talent.
  2. Consequence of Sound
    Aug 29, 2012
    80
    That's what Beams is truly all about: that chance for Dear to break himself down, to boil everything he is emotionally, musically, and creatively to its most essential. With that achieved, regardless of the name its created under, you've got yourself a truly unified, coherent record.
  3. Resident Advisor
    Oct 16, 2012
    80
    Fleshed out with flecks of African-style guitar and tumbling bass...there's still the trademarked bedrock: that motor-fueled, machine-grind churn.
  4. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Sep 21, 2012
    60
    Beams, like Asa Breed, is front-loaded with the atmospheres and vocal manipulations that are bedrock to his best work. But Beams fails to evince the kind of songwriting growth that the vocal minority of his fans have been waiting for.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. jmcpIII
    8
    A sort of career synthesis, Beams hammers home all of Matthew Dear's greatest strengths-chunky blocks of rhythm, pounding bass, and a hell of a lot of sex appeal. And while restating his musical agenda is by no means a bad thing, it comes off as a tiny bit of a disappointment when compared to the giant leap forward that was 2010's Black City. Dear's music sticks to the dark and seedy formula found on that album though here the results sound a little more sincere and heart-felt. Even some of the song titles ("Do The Right Thing", "Fighting is Futile", "Get the Rhyme Right") hint at a possible new-found optimism, but it's still by no means an uplifting album. His robotic vocal's remain the creepiest in dance music and one of the best utilized instruments in all of independent music. Destined for sweaty underground night clubs and strobe-lit orgies, Beams is an unmatched exercise in sonic sleaze and dance-floor debauchery.… Expand

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