User Score
Universal acclaim- based on 57 Ratings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 52 out of 57
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Mixed: 3 out of 57
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Negative: 2 out of 57
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Mar 31, 2021
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Mar 31, 2021Promises is the elegy for 2020. It brings tears of poignancy.
If the repeating arpeggio represents hope, and the silence after the arpeggio is despair, then Pharaoh Sanders is humanity navigating between the two. -
Apr 1, 2021Pretty sure I seized listening to this. Movement 6 cemented this as the album of the year for me.
This is incredible. -
Mar 4, 2022
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Dec 7, 2021So this is what it feels like to have a outer-body experience. An unique experience, to say the least.
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Apr 5, 2021Extraordinary, reflective&poignant. An experience everyone should have. Favourites: movement 1,2,5,8
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Jul 31, 2021I've first listened to this today, and since than I've listened to it I guess five or six times. I'm touched. This is one of the best albums I have ever listened to. Movement 6 gives me goosebumps all over my arms and legs. Truly fantastic. Congratulations.
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Apr 1, 2021best album of the 21st century, a world of beauty i have never experienced.
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Apr 5, 2021Promises is a difficult record to describe. All I can say is that the writing is mind expanding, the playing is strong and Sam and his chemistry with Mr Sanders is truly awe inspiring. Also its neat as f**k that Sam got to record with Pharoah as a huge fan of his!
Mind blowing record,. Check itout! -
Dec 15, 2021
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Jul 23, 2021Absolutely stunning. Find the time, some good headphones, turn the lights off, close your eyes and let it have control for an hour.
This is a gorgeous piece of work, a delicate meeting of worlds that undulates (sometimes crashing) through its nine movements.
Spellbinding. -
Jun 21, 2022Re-Listen Event Thing Part idek - Holy **** this is a great Jazz album
Every time I relisten to this thing I pick up on more and more that makes it a more rewarding experience each time.
BEST TRACK: MOVEMENT 6 HOLY **** IT GOES SO HARD
WORST TRACK: MOVEMENT 9 MAYBE
RATING CHANGE: +3
Awards & Rankings
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Apr 7, 2021Make no mistake, the payoff that Promises promises is by no means immediate. This is music to savour with eyes closed in a dark room, headphones on and all other distractions firmly yeeted from sight.
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Rolling StoneApr 6, 2021Eighty-year-old sax great Sanders pushes his sound to its most heavenly extreme. [Apr 2021, p.73]
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The WireApr 5, 2021Promises doesn’t always come across like a true meeting of equals. Laswell used the saxophonist as a plug-in element in the late 90s, Michael Mantler’s Jazz Composer’s Orchestra did the same on 1968’s Communications, and there’s a bit of that feel here. A player with as unique and instantly recognisable a voice as Sanders always risks becoming a gimmick, but his performance here is stunningly beautiful, and the album would be unimaginable without him. [Apr 2021, p.57]