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Oaklandazulasylum - Why?
  • Band Name: Why?
  • Record Label: anticon.
  • Release Date: Jun 24, 2003
Oaklandazulasylum Image
Metascore
70 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: This solo release from the anticon collective's Jonathan Wolf (aka Why?), also a member of cLOUDDEAD, sees the experimental rapper mixing in a healthy dose of indie guitar with beats and samples that venture from lo- to hi- fi.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Stylus Magazine
    88
    Unlike cLOUDDEAD, every track on Oaklandazulasylum is, at least musically, accessible and inviting.
  2. Pitchfork
    81
    From the first song it sounds rich and original.... It's as major a step as you'd expect-- really, as you'd demand-- from someone like Why?, not only for its sheer inventiveness, but the continuity that turns these lyrical snapshots into moving portraits.
  3. Urb
    60
    A few of these tracks feel more like unfinished sketches than completed songs, but if it's sparse folk-noir you're after, why? delivers the goods. [Aug 2003, p.90]
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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1

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