Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
MagnetDec 4, 2012At its worst (most of it), it's layered synth sounds with beats and vocals smacking of a manufactured sexiness, all designed to hide the gaping void where memorable songwriting should be. [No. 93, p.59]
-
Nov 29, 2012The best songs on Ultraísta recall the murky pop made by the likes of Broadcast, where clarity and catchiness intermingled
-
Q MagazineNov 21, 2012Godrich's production gives the album exquisite depth but also smothers its soul. [Dec 2012, p.114]
-
Nov 7, 2012It's a wallflower of an album, pretty, nice, but lacking the inspiration needed to lift it beyond the mundane.
-
Nov 5, 2012An album more likely to inspire admiration than love, then, but still smart enough to deserve plenty of it.
-
Nov 2, 2012Ultraísta is inventive but it overloads on likeness and similarity. There's enough here to warrant several listens and maybe even an impulse purchase but not quite enough to suggest that a follow-up record is necessary.
-
Nov 1, 2012The album sounds weirdly uniform, the over-similarity perhaps the result of avoiding choruses in favour of repetitive mantras.
-
UncutOct 26, 2012Ultraista never quite shake off the sense of a session-muso studio supergroup dressing down in indie clothes. [Dec 2012, p.78]
-
Oct 19, 2012Full of dazzling arrangements and killer beats. Memorable songs? Not so much.
-
Oct 10, 2012From its start to the jazzy electro shuffle of You're Out that rounds it off, Ultraísta is consistently involving, even if it sags in the middle with Our Song. It's set to be a cult favourite rather than sell millions of copies, but this is because it contains fascinating ideas you won't hear on most pop records.
-
Oct 9, 2012Ultraista could so easily have been yet another post-dubstep decent-but-disposable record. Instead the trio have managed to create something that genuinely impresses and surprises.
-
Oct 5, 2012The group's clearly more concerned with making great sounds and creating a distinctive vibe than they are with making lasting statements.
-
Oct 5, 2012The lyrics often hint at the push and pull of relationships, but they're contemplated serenely from afar and cushioned by those synthesizers, just one more element in the pattern.
-
Oct 5, 2012As a collection of songs, and particularly as a "pop" record (inspirations for the group reportedly included Rye Rye and Whigfield, which seems far-fetched at best), Ultraísta feels a bit unfulfilled, but as a work of sound and atmosphere, it's captivating, predictably excellent work.
-
Oct 5, 2012He doesn't exactly leave his own atmospheres, but he has fun in them.
-
Oct 5, 2012Bettinson's vocals can be a little... sweet, but the dark atmospherics sustain a palpable level of foreboding throughout.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 5 out of 6
-
Mixed: 1 out of 6
-
Negative: 0 out of 6
-
May 26, 2020
-
Jan 10, 2014