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Mar 3, 2023slowthai’s newest is the work of an artist clearly more excited than ever about what he himself can do now he’s booted his own doors wide open. ‘UGLY’ is a beautiful thing to behold.
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Mar 2, 2023A warts-and-all reckoning, his most exhilarating project to date from front to back.
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Mar 2, 2023Ugly is an album that carves out its own space: messy but vital, it deserves to be huge.
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Mar 6, 2023UGLY is a headlong tumble into deep waters, careening sharply off the edges of decency and screaming out for meaning as it goes, arse over teakettle into the unknown. Follow it down if you want, just untie that rope around your waist before you do: this is the kind of fall you take at terminal velocity or not at all.
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Mar 9, 2023UGLY certainly isn’t a pleasant listen, and at various points it’s too extreme to be categorised as rap or rock, but many of these tracks are brilliantly executed and their emotional power and impact put Slowthai in a unique position.
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Mar 3, 2023Ugly explores the rapper's newly formed duality, deepening his songcraft and letting the raging flame dim to a white-hot ember; it's his most reflective album to date.
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Mar 3, 2023Ugly makes for difficult listening in places, but that’s not to say it isn’t often brilliant. Experimental, disarmingly honest and conceptually tight, blending rap, alt-rock and electronica, there’s no denying that Frampton is putting in the work.
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Mar 3, 2023UGLY is a powerful and direct transmission from a brilliant, beleaguered brain.
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Mar 2, 2023With a wholehearted desire to make music purely for himself, UGLY displays an artistic freedom regained, reconnecting with what drew him to music in the first place. It’s a creative direction that will most likely not stick around, but that’s what makes it that bit more authentic.
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Mar 2, 2023It's clearly a challenging, confrontational album, but it also feels like the artist's purest expression yet.
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Mar 8, 2023UGLY is surely his most intense, unvarnished, unrelenting personal excavation
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Mar 28, 2023It hurts me to say different choices in terms of the production would have made it more accessible, because I respect his intent to be inaccessible here. If I have to sum it up and put a bow on it, I think “UGLY” is an album that will probably be appreciated more 25 years from now than it is today.
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Mar 6, 2023Despite its allusions to seeking therapy, listening to the album feels like accompanying a friend on a disastrous Saturday night bender.
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Mar 2, 2023A bold attempt to embrace his contradictions, this is a project held together by the brutal strength of slowthai’s performances.
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Mar 24, 2023The best boundary-pushers use parts of their own style to traverse new musical territory. While tracks like “Sooner” are a success, UGLY doesn’t manage to complete the journey.
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Mar 8, 2023Ugly sounds like something far less interesting: the sort of generically angsty guitar music that only a ’90s major label executive could love.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 36 out of 39
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Mixed: 2 out of 39
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Negative: 1 out of 39
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Mar 4, 2023
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Mar 5, 2023Slowthai's most raw and emotional performance yet. This album has solidified my love for his music and artistry.
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Mar 3, 2023UGLY throws some great bops and some of slowthai's most raw. emotional and unhinged material to date.