Black Acetate
by John Cale
Metascore
63

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. musicOMH.com
    80
    Black Acetate is in equal measures, serious and mocking, threatening and comforting, ambient and rowdy.
  2. New Musical Express (NME)
    80
    The sound of a pioneer who refuses to stop innovating. [8 Oct 2005, p.45]
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  3. Q Magazine
    60
    The noisy blackAcetate is the work of a man who is not going to go quietly. [Nov 2005, p.123]
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  5. Uncut
    60
    In general, the album's too bare, reserved and repetitive to be easily loved by many. But it is brave, from a man still in motion. [Oct 2005, p.104]
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  6. PopMatters
    50
    Although the album doesn't hang together well, the few great songs are dark, rich, and instantly memorable.
  7. Mojo
    80
    Not every moment is transcendent.... But otherwise, this is that rare thing, an album that shares new pleasures each time you hear it, made by someone who's still excited by music. [Nov 2005, p.102]
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  8. Lost At Sea
    55
    Where Cale flaps up is in not allowing himself enough space for nuance atop his overdriven guitars, forcing the deployment of gaudy keyboard settings to match the guitars’ "intensity" and even fumbling into a bona fide mall-punk chorus in "Perfect."
  9. Stylus Magazine
    50
    Cale faces a problem that neither recent Tom Waits nor Leonard Cohen have overcome: he can't sing anymore.
  10. Prefix Magazine
    50
    Much of the album feels unfocused, as if Cale has become seduced by the smooth trickery of digital production at the expense of cogent songs built on icy melodies, slippery poetics and true invention -- three of Cale's enduring strengths sadly missing through much of the album's fifty-three minutes.
  11. Pitchfork
    44
    Cale squanders whatever momentum he accrued on the estimable avant-pop of 2003's HoboSapiens by adorning these new songs with such unflattering, generic alternarock textures that they often render their author unrecognizable at best, and irrelevant at worst.
  12. Urb
    60
    A strangely satisfying pop record. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.92]
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Bobd
    Dec 23, 2005
    8
    An intriguing, and irritating creation from the Welsh Madman, rife with heavy guitar noise, recalling his misspent "Comes Alive" period, and An intriguing, and irritating creation from the Welsh Madman, rife with heavy guitar noise, recalling his misspent "Comes Alive" period, and that train wreck of an album, "Carribean Sunset" (c.1984) Some tunes, such as "In a Flood" "Turn the Light On"and "Hush", perhaps "Wasteland" and "Gravel Drive" can be considered vintage Cale, but the avant-dance bit "BrotherMan" is annoying, witness these lyrics: "I write reams if this shit everyday... In the courtyard with Uncle Sam"...it progresses with a disjointed and irritating sound much like a muffled dental drill. Where Hobo Sapiens was a near- masterpiece of avant -garde stylist pop, and a return to form, Black Acetate is Cale and the band ready for playing the bar/rave circuit..not as great an accomplishment as his earlier Hobo Sapiens, or the Island years, but a reasonable effort and very in-your-face.… Full Review »
  2. waltb
    Dec 18, 2005
    7
    it's not his best, but it's better than HoboSapiens or Walking on Locusts.
  3. kissj
    Nov 16, 2005
    10
    some velvet sound
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