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Central Market Image
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The Battles band member releases his latest solo album on the Warp label.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. The combination of synth, loop techniques and no-joke instrumentalists playing wild and unconventional rhythms is totally over-the-top, but that’s exactly what makes this album so dazzling.
  2. On Central Market, Mr. Braxton’s first full album under his own name in seven years, he has moved forward with exponentially more complicated music. It’s exponentially more entertaining, too.
  3. Instead of rhythmic exploration Braxton is working with a variety of harmonic and melodic developments and in doing so has made a refreshing and similar counterpoint to 'Mirrored'. Central Market may not be as calculated, but it is more fun and in general more easy to digest.
  4. The strongest tracks here make a case for Braxton’s compositional skills; the rest feel like recycled tales from his nights out with Stanier and Williams, an unfortunate byproduct of placing them within this context.
  5. It's Central Market, his second full solo release, that sees him coming of age in a manner that befits the familial myth.
  6. Which isn’t to say that the rest of the album isn’t impressive at certain points, though the law of diminishing returns weighs heavily here.
  7. 40
    His third solo album is promoted as "new classical," but "J. City" sounds more like a grievous stab at alt-rock.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Aug 30, 2010
    10
    Absolutely phenomenal record. It blew me away to the point that I couldn't sleep for two days. Finally, the genre of music I've felt had theAbsolutely phenomenal record. It blew me away to the point that I couldn't sleep for two days. Finally, the genre of music I've felt had the most potential for years has come out of the woodwork and shown the world that it is not **** around. Optimistic yet raging with intensity. Wildly intellectual, but isn't a prick about it. It takes everything I love about Battles and turns it into real, respectable classical music... created for the 23rd century Expand