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Aug 18, 2023Despite all of these guests and shifting stylistic moods, World Music Radio holds together nicely. The production has an organic, musically experimental vibe that feels like Batiste is really bridging his jazz and pop influences. There's also a sense that he is digging deeper emotionally after a tough few years.
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Aug 18, 2023An expansive ode to human ingenuity and the boundless ability of music to foster connection.
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Aug 18, 2023World Music Radio proves that Jon Batiste is capable of coming up with [new ideas]. They seem to arrive when he sounds most like himself: an artist with jazz background, a deep knowledge of musical history and an iconoclastic streak. It also proves he is capable of sublimating his own individuality to fit in; when it tries too hard, it simply adds to the slush pile of nondescript pop.
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Aug 18, 2023Lyrically Batiste plays it middle of the road, not to offend, and at times that hollowness can seem like a bad parody. ... That title, World Music Radio, pledges a larger scope of sound which Batiste is certainly capable of incorporating, but too often different genres get a quick cameo before Batiste goes back to the dance-ready pop tracks.
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Aug 18, 2023Barring a few notable exceptions, World Music Radio is so beholden to its premise—so enfeebled by Batiste’s insistence on universality—that it offers up few opportunities to get to know Batiste himself: his stories, his struggles, his euphoric victories and devastating losses. That absence leaves the record feeling hollow, like a pretty house where no one lives.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 2 out of 4
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Mixed: 0 out of 4
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Negative: 2 out of 4
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Aug 21, 2023Just a terrible drop in quality from his last album. This is complete garbage.