Love Is Magic
by John Grant
  • Record Label: PTKF
  • Release Date: Oct 12, 2018
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. The Independent (UK)
    Oct 11, 2018
    100
    His brilliant fourth album Love Is Magic takes listeners on a similar thrill ride [as his 50th birthday], dominated by swirling loops of grand, romantic melody, sly twists of sardonic wit and heart-stopping drops of sheer honesty.
  2. The Skinny
    Oct 9, 2018
    100
    There isn't enough time across the space of one album for the contemplation that this music requires, but the spacious arrangements do their best with a wide variety of electronic affectations.
  3. Drowned In Sound
    Oct 10, 2018
    90
    Grant might just be taking the piss here, but his impish spirit reflects a writer with his fingers on the pulse of what’s really magic in this era: an understanding of humanity and all its feathery mess.
  5. Under The Radar
    Oct 16, 2018
    80
    Grant gives us his synthpop troubadour, a persona soaring between bleak and soulful. Enjoy it before he shifts again, then enjoy that, because the thing about John Grant is whatever he does, the music is always great.
  6. AllMusic
    Oct 12, 2018
    80
    A collection of songs and finds Grant at his loosest, funniest, and most heartbreaking.
  7. DIY Magazine
    Oct 12, 2018
    80
    Love Is Magic feels like a victory lap. Frequently boundary-pushing, side-splittingly funny and anything but safe, John Grant’s fourth LP is a rip-roaring thrill ride that’s immensely danceable to boot. Magic really does work in mysterious ways.
  8. Record Collector
    Oct 11, 2018
    80
    Love Is Magic feels like three shredded albums spliced back together. But it’s nutritious, colourful and occasionally funeral-level mournful, an emotional pick’n’mix that, by its very nature, increasingly repays revisits.
  9. musicOMH.com
    Oct 10, 2018
    80
    Grant’s lyrics have always been striking, often highly emotive and confessional, but also frequently designed to raise more than a few eyebrows. Here, there are moments where he is more cutting, and more sleazy than ever.
  10. New Musical Express (NME)
    Oct 10, 2018
    80
    For all its fast-paced absurdness, Love Is Magic carves out quiet moments, too. These tiny, rare diamonds stud a world that can so often feel completely evil. It’s a balancing act that Grant ultimately pulls off.
  11. Q Magazine
    Oct 8, 2018
    80
    Fabulously vivid fourth solo album. [Nov 2018, p.106]
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  12. The Line of Best Fit
    Oct 8, 2018
    80
    The specificity of the lyrics and the boldness of the electronic orchestration should theoretically preclude this--but Grant lets the emotions that drive them show through enough that you can’t help but connect.
  13. PopMatters
    Oct 16, 2018
    70
    Love Is Magic, however impassioned, brutally candid, and devilishly witty it might be at times, never really ignites like its predecessors.
  14. The 405
    Oct 16, 2018
    70
    Love Is Magic is his most consistent and enjoyable work yet.
  15. Uncut
    Oct 8, 2018
    70
    The synth reveries outstay their welcome, but the sense is of a great talent whose early solo work vented a lifetime's pain and outrage now experimenting and recalibrating. [Nov 2018, p.30]
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 1 out of 11
  1. Lajaleaa
    Dec 20, 2018
    6
    ( 62/100 )

    Esta fue una de las experiencias musicales más pesadas que he tenido en un largo tiempo. No quiero sonar despectivo, pero no sé    ( 62/100 )

    Esta fue una de las experiencias musicales más pesadas que he tenido en un largo tiempo. No quiero sonar despectivo, pero no sé que tiene la gente gay en el ámbito musical que su exploración tiene éxito en ser compleja, pero deficiente en estructura. No estoy generalizando, pero siempre que me encuentro con un proyecto musical dirigido por una personalidad LGBTQ, la experiencia es particular, espacial, claro, pero también algo hostil. En el caso de John Grant, esa hostilidad se presenta en la ruptura de la estructura musical. Producido por él mismo, Paul Alexander y Benge, la música es aburrida, inconsistente, casi ilógica y demasiado unidimensional como para que los oyentes no tengan algo que escuchar. Es como si Grant tomara nuestros oídos para usarlos en su proyecto pero sin tener el respeto de dar algo a cambio. No es más complejo que eso. Grant trata de generar una exploración, no solo auditiva, sino visual de un espacio cósmico en el que presenta varias ironías. Desde temas románticos, hasta temas de grotesco social y político: la corrupción, los mass shootings, el consumismo, la perdida de la dignidad, la indiferencia y más pecados relacionados con la banalidad del cuerpo son parte de la tesis de Grant. La música no tiene relación con esos temas y sus aleatoriedad, ambigüedad y falta de estructura simplemente hacen de todo el viaje, uno sin destino y sin propósito latente para vivir. "Love Is Magic" no tiene la decencia de ser, al menos, pasajero; simplemente pide, de track a track, que sea olvidado para que su creador se de cuenta de lo hueco que pueden ser sus propios tacones. Y, en fin, en medio de su grosera contribución musical, que por ratos te ilusiona con glitter pero vomita discursos contradictorios de autocomplaciencia ("Diet Gum"), considero que la decisión que tengo de no volver a escuchar un proyecto de éste, así llamado, artista, no es temporal.    … Full Review »
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