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Port Entropy Image
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the Japanese artist's fourth album of experimental pop.
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  • Record Label: Polyvinyl
  • Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Pop, International
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 13
  2. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Mar 2, 2011
    81
    Port Entropy, Shugo's fifth LP (depending on how you reckon Fragment, his 2003 CD-R self-release), decisively occupies the realm of the waking: the nimble, the abstract, and the exciting.
  2. Mar 2, 2011
    80
    As creative as it is cheerful, Port Entropy just might be the most inviting welcome into Tokumaru's world yet.
  3. Mar 8, 2011
    80
    It's a wonderful record of a musician and songwriter in his prime, but one that requires a willingness to go on a ride, with an open mind and a willingness to have some fun.
  4. Mar 2, 2011
    70
    You won't catch every note, every shift--he's never that transparent. But there's a welcoming feel to this record that makes it resonate longer than any jarring shift could.
  5. Mar 28, 2011
    68
    Invoking the most sunny-day innocence of '60s pop with effortless amounts of homeland lyrics and layers, the overwhelming sweetness has the potential to wear thin for the duration of a whole album.
  6. Mar 2, 2011
    62
    Port Entropy is charming and pretty and brilliantly assembled, but utterly two-dimensional, and listening to it even one time completely through yields strikingly diminished returns.
  7. Mar 2, 2011
    60
    While Port Entropy contains some of Tokumaru's most accomplished compositions yet, on the whole, it's a bit too monochrome for its own good.

See all 13 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Sep 16, 2011
    10
    A lot of musicians fall into the trap of trying to be unique rather than good. As a result they sing out of tune, use weird instruments andA lot of musicians fall into the trap of trying to be unique rather than good. As a result they sing out of tune, use weird instruments and arrangements and add technical oddities like the irritating sound of vinyl hissing and clicking to their sound (I just hate that). I was apprehensive to Shugo Tokumaru since the one thing I knew about him was that he plays an enormous amount of more or less strange instruments and mix it all together into his own unique style of music .
    I am glad to say that my apprehensions were unfounded. Port Entropy is an utterly delightful pop record with a number of extremely catchy songs. The fact that the sound is multi-layered and unique (in a very positive way) makes it possible to listen to the record over and over again without getting tired of it. As an added bonus Shugo Tokumaru is gifted with soft voice that is a pure pleasure to listen to.
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