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Sep 9, 2013It allows listeners to refamilairize themselves with the Weeknd's aesthetic, which was striking and singular to begin with.
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Sep 6, 2013He’s managed to transcend his previous efforts via the scaling up the sonics and simply maintaining the quality of this excellent record.
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Sep 11, 2013The 23-year-old Tesfaye will almost certainly make a bigger, better record soon. For now, Kiss Land works fine as one of the year’s most fearless pop releases.
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Sep 12, 2013Overall, Kiss Land is a decent first full-length, but for the hype that The Weeknd had built up leading to this release, some (if not most) will say that it failed to meet expectations, especially compared to the incredible hype that surrounded his 2011 debut.
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Sep 6, 2013He isolates himself inside long, slow-tempo songs that edge from seductive into oppressive--and, with their reverberating guitar chords and crisp, dominating drum sounds, will feel oddly familiar to anyone who's enjoyed a 1980s ballad by Genesis.
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Sep 27, 2013Ultimately the genius of Kiss Land‘s production lies in its ability to literalise Tesfaye’s fractured state of mind.
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Sep 10, 2013For an act founded in anonymity and reserve, it turns out the Weeknd's most convincing work of art is Tesfaye's own rollout as a star and storyteller.
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MojoSep 19, 2013The 23-year-old Ethiopian-Canadian's sonic evolution continues on Kiss Land. [Oct 2013, p.88]
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Sep 23, 2013Kiss Land is a fascinating record, Tesfaye defying reservations with the self-absorption of a madman.
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Sep 12, 2013Kiss Land is proof for the unconvinced: the Weeknd is a star whether he wants to be or not.
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Sep 9, 2013Kiss Land sounds every bit as isolated and singular as Tesfaye feels.
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Sep 6, 2013Sonically, his oeuvre has bridged the divide between barren and lush. Lyrically, he has perfected the motif of narcotized horror.... This is the real deal.
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Sep 6, 2013Kiss Land plays like a more considered, better-mastered continuation of Echoes of Silence, not anything dramatically different.
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Sep 13, 2013In all though, Kiss Land succeeds on not only being an album in the assumed sense of the word, with big singles, tasty hooks and singalong phrases, but as a concept record too, one that takes you hostage.
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Sep 18, 2013Kiss Land is pulpy, mournful, pungent, unnerving.
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Sep 16, 2013The result is a seductive layering of glittering, MOR surfaces, ambient textures and a deep, aching undertow.
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Under The RadarDec 4, 2013Kiss Land covers musical and lyrical territory similar to 2012's Trilogy, but Abel Tesfaye's falsetto recollections of joylessly shallow sexual escapades still sound relatively fresh and novel. [Nov-Dec 2013, p.100]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 241 out of 297
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Mixed: 41 out of 297
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Negative: 15 out of 297
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Sep 10, 2013
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Sep 10, 2013
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Sep 13, 2013