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Black Acetate
by
Black Acetate Image
Metascore
63

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

  • Summary: A bit more rock-oriented than its predecessor, 'Acetate' is nevertheless another experimental effort from the now-63-year-old Cale.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. 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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  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. musicOMH.com
    80
    Black Acetate is in equal measures, serious and mocking, threatening and comforting, ambient and rowdy.
  4. Urb
    60
    A strangely satisfying pop record. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.92]
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  5. 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."
  6. PopMatters
    50
    Although the album doesn't hang together well, the few great songs are dark, rich, and instantly memorable.
  7. 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.

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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. kissj
    Nov 16, 2005
    10
    some velvet sound
  2. 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.… Collapse
  4. waltb
    Dec 18, 2005
    7
    it's not his best, but it's better than HoboSapiens or Walking on Locusts.