User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 32 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 32
  2. Negative: 2 out of 32

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  1. Jan 24, 2013
    9
    It is clearly not for everybody and isn't always easy on the ears, as Amanda doesn't go at all for angelic vocals or even decent vocals. However, in that she proves that with just the right amount of grit and roughness she can display any emotion she wants, and she does so with incredibly powerful piano solos and sweeping strings.
  2. Nov 1, 2010
    10
    This is an incredible album. Amanda Palmer delivers again, and her songs pack as much punch as they do on the Dresden Dolls albums. The songwriting is pure genius...you get unexpected, hook laden melodies, crashing piano, subtle emotional ballads and black humor. Lyrically, Palmer presents us with an honesty that is almost heartbreaking and sometimes cruelly sarcastic. All in all, youThis is an incredible album. Amanda Palmer delivers again, and her songs pack as much punch as they do on the Dresden Dolls albums. The songwriting is pure genius...you get unexpected, hook laden melodies, crashing piano, subtle emotional ballads and black humor. Lyrically, Palmer presents us with an honesty that is almost heartbreaking and sometimes cruelly sarcastic. All in all, you will not walk away from this album disappointed or unmoved. Expand
  3. GaryS
    May 25, 2009
    9
    I can't get enough of this album. It does take a few listens to reaveal itself but when it does, it's amazing. This is my album of the year so far. Although, I haven't thought that through yet but right now this is.
  4. QueueThree
    Apr 30, 2009
    10
    Amanda Palmer has to be one of the best lyricists of this recent century. I'd rate this ten even if it didn't have any music, it was just a recorded poetry reading. The outstandingly spectacular music only serves to top off this amazing offering.
  5. HankL
    Apr 12, 2009
    10
    Absolutely stunning. Haven't felt this way since I first heard Devil Doll.
  6. Stéphanie
    Apr 7, 2009
    10
    Incredible album once you get into it. Love Amanda, love the Dresden Dolls.
  7. L.J.
    Oct 16, 2008
    10
    The first through fifth times I listened to this album, I figured it a little less interesting than the previous Dresden Dolls offerings. But I kept listening. Clever songs that reward further attention and analysis. A great (slightly more ravaged) voice. OMG drama instrumentals. Amanda Palmer is something special.
  8. WallyS
    Sep 26, 2008
    9
    This album will make you feel something. Palmer knows how to draw the listener in and become part of each of her songs. I laugh and I cry when listening to these songs. You can't listen and not have a reaction.
  9. EricD.
    Sep 24, 2008
    9
    What a gem Amanda Palmer is! AMAZING body of work! A tour de force - she's hafe a Doll but twice the punch sonically - and I feel The Dresden Dolls are genius! Who Killed Amanda Palmer is album of the year by far! Stand out tracks: Astronaut, Runs In The Family, Leeds United, Ampersand, Gutiar Hero, The Point Of It All.
  10. JeremyF
    Sep 23, 2008
    9
    Awesome. Great. Interesting. Unpredictable at times, along with some pleasant harks back to older styles. A clash of them both, chaotically presented to us in an exuberant and amazing fashion. Astronaut, Runs in the Family, and Ampersand open the record with a very very strong start, showing each side of this album in just about 14 minutes. Strength Through Music is a chilling cut, Awesome. Great. Interesting. Unpredictable at times, along with some pleasant harks back to older styles. A clash of them both, chaotically presented to us in an exuberant and amazing fashion. Astronaut, Runs in the Family, and Ampersand open the record with a very very strong start, showing each side of this album in just about 14 minutes. Strength Through Music is a chilling cut, written after Columbine, (which was a live favorite for a bit before the record's release, and made even more chilling with the occasional reading of the deaths and injuries in the Columbine shootings before the singing began.) The song is now preambled by a strange recording a man talking about gold, but whatever. Guitar Hero and Oasis are both fun songs, but the former ranks among the best, being one of the more successfully weird and elaborate cuts. Have to Drive is a devastatingly beautiful number, as are the two closing cuts, The Point of it All, and Another Year, the former being a sad study on either a drugged out mess trying to get better (and not doing well) or a person with Alzheimer's and how she is dealing with this person's unfortunate state, and the latter being a meditation on waiting another year for... well, who knows. It's a calm number, that has one of the best piano lines Palmer has ever churned out. However, I felt like it was all building to a big climax that never came. Sometimes this tension-without-result can be invigorating, but it actually just kind of disappointed me. Who Killed Amanda Palmer is a brilliant work and I am glad it is finally released. Expand
  11. TomS
    Sep 22, 2008
    9
    Dark, funny and clever as hell. I want to her home and give her a big hug.
  12. OwenP
    Sep 18, 2008
    9
    This album is one of those albums that grabs you as soon as you start listening to it. Amazing percussion and piano. Reminds me a lot of Arcade Fire, but with more impassioned (almost angry) lyrics. She has a great voice which covers a wide spectrum. Very good.
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 13
  2. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. What is both surprising and remarkable, then, is how unflinchingly direct, bracingly unfiltered, and wholly intimate the new album, which is out today, sounds and feels.
  2. This is a wonderful piece of work from a talented, intelligent artist, put across with all the passion of someone who's spent a long time thinking about and living with the project.
  3. Palmer has made a record that sounds not like the latest from Brechtian punk cabaret's leading light, but the thoughtful debut from an invigorated artist, striking out from the valley of the Dolls.