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Quarantine Image
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 20 Ratings

  • Summary: The debut full-length album for the Brooklyn artist showcases her vocals more than her previous ambient electronic EPs.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 20
  2. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. Jul 25, 2012
    90
    Quarantine is the addictive soundtrack to some kind of science fiction nightmare.
  2. May 30, 2012
    90
    The results are nothing short of magnificent, producing a set of tracks whose fizzing surfaces are always disturbed by some new action just beneath, where ridges of static ruffle and tumble over one another, and where harsh regions of higher density sluice violently into the foreground.
  3. May 30, 2012
    80
    It's conflicted, ambivalent, complex.
  4. Jun 4, 2012
    80
    There's an alertness and sense of movement within these carefully crafted soundscapes.
  5. Mojo
    Jul 19, 2012
    80
    An extraordinary, multi-layered, attention-grabbing record. [Aug 2012, p.87]
  6. May 30, 2012
    79
    Here is an album that's neither forgettable nor empty.
  7. 60
    Quarantine is less concerned with the tropes of olde world dance music, more fixated on gloopy post-club ambience.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Jul 7, 2013
    9
    Easily one of the queasiest albums in recent memory, Halo's attempt to unify her sound and provide an entry work into her past works courtesyEasily one of the queasiest albums in recent memory, Halo's attempt to unify her sound and provide an entry work into her past works courtesy of Hyperdub, coming off a sterling year this can be equal parts off-putting and utterly enthralling. The main element here is Halo's voice, which she wields like The Knife and manipulates to no end; a child-like coo here, abrasive atonalities there, a warm wash when the moment calls for it. For an electronic album, there is little in the way of a beat, and the grappling with ideas can be frustrating, but hard work will win the day, and this album's secrets will be solved one day. Expand
  2. Dec 27, 2013
    9
    There isn't anything out there that sounds like Quarantine, not even Laurel Halo's previous work. Unlike other human/machine hybrids the soundThere isn't anything out there that sounds like Quarantine, not even Laurel Halo's previous work. Unlike other human/machine hybrids the sound produced here isn't some cyborg with fully integrated elements smoothly conjoined, but a frisson between Laurel Halo's fallible almost awkward vocals and the Sci-fi sounds her battery of audio equipment produces. It's this awkwardness which makes the album so good but difficult too, which may mean it'll alienate as many people as it entrances, which would be a shame 'cos there is a lot to enjoy here. Take a chance and get infected. Collapse

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