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Maryland Mansions wants to be a great record, but it's simply a good one.
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Although there are some moments of greatness on the disc, it feels more like a cathartic vent-session than a well thought-out release.
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So perhaps it's about time that we stop calling Cex a wunderkind: He may be barely 25 but with the introspective yet exuberant Maryland Mansions, he's officially grown up, establishing himself as a performer to be taken-- yikes!-- seriously.
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Mansions end result is a scarred mess, a fitting aesthetic for such introspective music.
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Surprisingly reminiscent of that other white-boy hip-hop circus freak [Beck], circa 1996’s genre-mashing breakthrough Odelay.
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BlenderDeconstructed sonics phase between absent-minded professor and glitch-craft. [#23, p.101]
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[A] weird, angry, frustrating album.
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UrbHe finally seems to be combining alll of his varied interests into a complete package more substantive than his earlier, smark-alecky adventures. [Mar 2004, p.108]
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Rolling StoneCex has finally found a way to bridge his goofball rhymes and brilliantly cinematic techno collages. [27 Nov 2003, p.94]
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Alternative PressThese eight songs are as strangely catchy as they are desperate. [Feb 2004, p.92]
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Kidwell has distilled hip-hop into a brew that also contains trace elements of Nine Inch Nails, neo-goth noir and the finest Bristolian trip-hop, as well as the ever-present sonic manipulations that result from a very big iPod and a brain to match.
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Entertainment WeeklyAn exercise in romantic self-loathing. [Listen 2 This supplement, Nov 2003, p.40]
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SpinIf only this Baltimore art-rap exhibitionist were as consistently funny as his album titles. [Jan 2004, p.100]
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PopMatters
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The WireIt's the wealth of unexpected production touches crammed into its 25 minutes that really bring Maryland Mansions to life. [#240, p.72]