Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
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  1. After I got over my high I began to feel the rest of the album was a letdown, but far from it--just lesser variations on his trick of deploying short samples as beats without settling for staccato. Kind of like in rock and roll even if you'd never know it to listen to it--only to think about it.
  2. Jan 13, 2011
    68
    Lucky Shiner has all the facets of something good. It breathes on its downbeats, sings rickety sampler loops, and, most enjoyably, it takes its time.
  3. Dec 21, 2010
    80
    In the end, Lucky Shiner stands as a proper introduction to a producer who cares as much about moving your body as he does your soul.
  4. Dec 13, 2010
    82
    The simple brilliance that Gold Panda is capable of delivering with this crisp and intricate album stands in sharp but good contrast to the previously released Quitters Raga.
  5. 70
    He covers an impressive amount of ground on Lucky Shiner, and the variety works in his favor. Perhaps he's missing a degree of originality, but what these tracks might be lacking in idiosyncratic branding will likely be made up for with a longevity of listenability.
  6. Mojo
    Dec 13, 2010
    80
    Wonky beats and shimmering twisted tech melodies. [Nov. 2010, p. 109]
  7. Oct 22, 2010
    80
    Each song has expert structure, shimmering melodies, and enough drums and bass to put these songs in the club.
  8. Lucky Shiner is one of the most innovative and mind-melding albums of the year and one that just keeps on giving.
  9. It's all a lot to wrap your head around, and depending on your mindset, you could either follow the sound collage down the rabbit hole or simply ride the surface-level groove.
  10. The dusty melancholia of Lucky Shiner feels earned and lived-in. It's a far cry from just naming your new bedroom-pop band Double Dare.
  11. Lucky Shiner feels at once painfully intimate and intercontinentally expansive
  12. Where there are no words, there are rampaging thoughts, and Lucky Shiner is an album designed to provoke and instigate.
  13. This is Gold Panda's own record, an album of proper emotional heft that'll be enjoyed with a box of tissues, during tingling comedowns and on more discerning dancefloors.
  14. The music drifts effortlessly between bright effervescence and dreamy, eerie moods.
  15. It feels like the ravishing opium dream of a Victorian gentleman explorer, trying to recreate the exoticism of a long trip abroad through a prolonged period of narcosis.
  16. 80
    If IDM is that pudgy guy with the thick glasses who won't shut up about Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Gold Panda is the shy boy in the corner that somehow gets the coolest girl at the party to make him breakfast.
  17. Armed with an ear for a skilful beat and an array of weird samples, it's a mixture the Peckham-born producer expertly facilitates.
  18. Whatever angle you examine it from, Lucky Shiner is an impressive statement, especially for a debut, and when Gold Panda lets the house beat sink into the background and experiments a little more with space and structure the results are gorgeous.
  19. Lucky Shiner is a good argument for the album as a conceptual whole, and for a musical environment a bit slower than the singles-based landscape that birthed Gold Panda as an entity to be reckoned with.
  20. The album feels like a nil-nil tie in soccer: lots of interesting parts, but ultimately lacking payoff.
  21. Q Magazine
    80
    For this stunning first offering South London producer Derwin Panda connects organic harmonies of Noah Lennox's Panda Bear project with Four Tet's dizzying cut-ups. [Nov 2010, p.109]
User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Feb 23, 2011
    5
    it's ok but nothing groundbreaking really. i keep thinking about The Field and Four Tet when I listen to it and the fact they can really doit's ok but nothing groundbreaking really. i keep thinking about The Field and Four Tet when I listen to it and the fact they can really do this much better than Gold Panda. But I'm looking forward to see what this artist is gonna do next. Full Review »