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Feb 23, 2011[Jamie xx] accomplishes a difficult task in successfully (re)presenting Scott-Heron's music -- integrity intact -- in the present tense to a fickle yet discerning groove-centric culture without kitsch or excess.
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Feb 18, 2011It's not merely a rehash of the original, but a cohesive, considered masterpiece in its own right.
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Mar 4, 2011Gone are the old voices of the city, the tales of the Wu-Tang and the sense that there is real struggle or strife. Instead it's a heterogeneous mix of international talent devoted less to teaching lessons or passing down wisdom as it is to making twenty-somethings dance.
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Feb 28, 2011We're New Here is a psychedelic atlas with which we can all sonically voyage upon. A great way to start the year.
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Mar 3, 2011Scott-Heron's voice sounds just as prime as it did last year, except this time around Smith has adorned the versions with added beats, synths and keyboards for a fuller, richer sound.
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Feb 18, 2011While Smith uses this album as an outlet to explore a variety of different styles, importantly he never loses sight of the source material. Even so, in paying tribute to a great artist, Jamie XX has laid significant claims to being deserving of that title himself.
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Mar 1, 2011The result is deep, it's broadly imaginative, it's tightly focused, and it's utterly essential.
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Feb 18, 2011Scott-Heron's raspy vocals anchor Smith's spectral diddlings; the results on We're New Here are pleasantly moody.
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Jan 10, 2012The snatches of Scott-Heron's voice, cracked for sure but deeper than night nonetheless, delivers it from callow generalization and foregone conclusion.
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Apr 4, 2011While We're New Here is spooky, it's more chill-out mix than futuristic minimal-rave, and comes as a less interesting culture-clash than, say, The Dirtbombs doing covers of Detroit techno songs.
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Feb 22, 2011The duo lends each other gravitas and levity on this very curious but ultimately immersive LP.
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MojoApr 6, 2011Hip-hop originator meets Mercury-winning button-pusher du jour. [MArch 2011, p. 108]
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Mar 16, 2011So from no albums in 13 years to two high quality long players in the space of six months - the star of Gil Scott-Heron is very much in the ascendency again, his influence on today's culture thrown into ever greater relevance by one of its finest new producers. It's that rare thing--a properly fine remix album.
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Feb 22, 2011So We're New Here isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it showcases a producer so in love with the music of now that he not only preserves the power of his source material, but makes it more relevant.
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Mar 31, 2011While it may not attain the dizzy heights of I'm New Here, Smith's deftness ensures that We're New Here is far more than just a vanity project
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Mar 28, 2011It could easily stand on its own without Scott-Heron's raspy vocals, but it's the interplay between his world-weary lyrics and Smith's youthful enthusiasm that makes this an essential companion piece to the original.
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Feb 22, 2011The residue of death that lingers on I'm New Here is wiped clean from We're New Here. It's replaced with brightness, an energy, and a historical milieu.
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Mar 8, 2011Ultimately, We're New Here succeeds because it manages to seamlessly reconcile the different traditions from which it draws-not just Gil Scott Heron's uttering utterances, but UK Garage, the fibrous gloss of Seventeen Seconds-era The Cure, and R&B futurism.
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Mar 9, 2011What you read is what you get here: an album full of small Scott-Heron samples bolstered by production from a member of the xx. Nothing more, nothing less.
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Q MagazineMar 1, 2011Fallen street poet gets remixed by rising street urchin. Result: comeback complete. [March 2011]
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Feb 18, 2011So strength meets strength on this unusual album-length remix, as Smith's skittering beats and ghostly soul divas put Scott-Heron right where he belongs: in the future.
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Feb 23, 2011The real triumph of We're New Here is that it doesn't feel like an album-length remix. Instead, it's a collaboration done the way Scott-Heron's best team-ups always are: after the fact, with time to consider the everlasting gravity of the man's words and wisdom.
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Feb 18, 2011Throughout, Scott's old-soul narratives are reborn through Smith's atmospheric beats.
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Feb 18, 2011It's a dub reimagining that takes the material further out, into a soundscape whose fractured dubstep tones, sped-up samples and drum'n'bass beats only occasionally work in its favour.
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Feb 22, 2011To its great credit it's high and low and all over the place. The dislocation works: the record has patience and breadth and almost zero pretension.
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The WireApr 28, 2011There's a great danger in finding beauty in suffering, but this album takes that risk and reaps great dividends. [Mar 2011, p.54]
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UncutFeb 18, 2011If I'm New Here was a triumph for Russell and Scott-Heron, We're New Here reveals a maverick production talent in Jamie Smith that his band's records have only hinted at. [Mar 2011, p.95]
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Mar 25, 2011The result is the best of both artists: Scott-Heron's spine-tingling, cracked timeless spoken word delivery, The xx's thoughtful, well-paced current studio trickery.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 32 out of 35
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Mixed: 1 out of 35
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Negative: 2 out of 35
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May 7, 2013
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Sep 27, 2011
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Mar 9, 2011