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Complicated Game Image
Metascore
87

Universal acclaim - based on 9 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 13 Ratings

  • Summary: The first studio release in six years for the singer-songwriter was co-produced by C.C. Adcock and Mike Napolitano.
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Top Track

Copper Canteen
Honey, don't you be yelling at me when I'm cleaning my gun I'll wash the blood off the tailgate when deer season's done We got one more weekend to... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Uncut
    Feb 25, 2015
    90
    McMurtry's flair for the cinematic shines brighter than ever. [Apr 2015, p.78]
  2. Feb 24, 2015
    90
    He's a storyteller with a literary knack for using detail and narrative to draw complex, relatable characters, and his storytelling finesse has never been more evident than it is here.
  3. Feb 24, 2015
    90
    Complicated Game is brilliant album, dense and thoughtful as McMurtry swirls around inside the heads of another set of fascinating characters.
  4. Feb 24, 2015
    80
    Staunch and undeterred to the brink of defiance, Complicated Game finds McMurtry’s rugged resilience again setting the tone.
  5. Mar 11, 2015
    80
    The new album doesn’t have the political commentary that we saw on those two [Childish Things (2005) and Just Us Kids (2008)], but it’s likely we’re going to see Complicated Game on the nominee list come next year. It’s that good.
  6. Jul 8, 2015
    80
    This 53-year-old minor folk vet’s drawl doesn’t obscure his flow, making it all the easier to follow his tales in real-time, inhabiting a husband cleaning his deer rifle or the bent-backed Deaver who watched as “Uncle Sam took away the neighbors’ land.”
  7. Mojo
    Apr 22, 2015
    80
    There's a sense in almost all the songs of open roads, either beckoning or closed in, or both. [May 2015, p.99]

See all 9 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Sep 9, 2015
    9
    We're three quarters of the way in, and this is, by far, still my favorite album of the year.

    I hate it when websites have character
    We're three quarters of the way in, and this is, by far, still my favorite album of the year.

    I hate it when websites have character minimums........
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  2. Dec 22, 2015
    7
    Great to hear James is still out there making good music. A little bit of same-ness takes over this album by the end, but as usual, lyricsGreat to hear James is still out there making good music. A little bit of same-ness takes over this album by the end, but as usual, lyrics are great. "you got to me" and "she loves me" are favorites.. Expand

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