Metascore
89

Universal acclaim - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 28
  2. Negative: 0 out of 28
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  1. Oct 29, 2019
    100
    Olsen, her arrangers and producer (The Paper Chase‘s John Congleton) have created an album that simply bulges with perfection and timeless songs.
  2. Oct 4, 2019
    100
    Her sad-girl persona, thrust upon her unwittingly by music media, transforms into its most dramatic form. It’s a brazen sadness echoed through crashing symbols and spacious synths. The songs are devastating, but also nourishing: it’s a whole new version of Olsen.
  3. 100
    Ultimately this record – her best yet – is about finding a different kind of love: the quiet self-examination after the dust of a break-up finally settles.
  4. Oct 2, 2019
    100
    All Mirrors is a successful example of how being bold and staying true to yourself pays off. Undeniably, this is Olsen’s most cohesive, self-aware, and searing album to date, and the era of Olsen is far from finished.
  5. Oct 1, 2019
    95
    Her newfound embrace of violins, violas and cellos elevates her shadowy, often synth-infused rock to extraordinarily goosebump-inducing heights, making All Mirrors her third consecutive (and likely best) masterpiece to date.
  6. Oct 4, 2019
    93
    The end result is this towering, tempestuous album, where nearly every song has calms and storms matching Olsen’s soaring voice and intricate melodies.
  7. Oct 15, 2019
    92
    Olsen has created an undeniable stunner that should go down as one of the strongest folk albums of the year.
  8. Oct 15, 2019
    90
    All Mirrors belongs in the canon of essential break-up albums, but more Exile in Guyville than Rumours or Blue. ... The resulting instrumentation is impressively cohesive and resoundingly huge.
  9. Oct 4, 2019
    90
    Though she may have initially built her reputation on stark and brittle atmospheres, it turns out that her trademark vulnerability is only elevated by these stirring, highly stylized interpretations, making it a risk that pays off in spades.
  10. Oct 2, 2019
    90
    Rapturous. ... The album is an extended meditation on the vagaries of fortune through regeneration, but for the listener, the experience is pure bliss.
  11. Oct 2, 2019
    90
    All Mirrors is challenging and confrontational, and rewards close, present listening.
  12. Oct 2, 2019
    90
    Monumental and intimate in equal measure, All Mirrors' boldness is exceeded only by its profound emotional resonance. Angel Olsen's talents were always apparent. Here, they seem limitless.
  13. Oct 2, 2019
    90
    Olsen’s up to something different here, inviting a different sort of attention to fully absorb. It’s worth the investment; the emotion’s as visceral as it is complex, and it ranks among the best sounding records this year, deserving to be cranked on a good sound system — an album to spend time with, to fall into, to shut up and let yourself be kissed by.
  14. 90
    It’s all at once a whirlwind of colliding ideas both past and present, a bold stride into the future, a new sound pushed beyond expectation, an album that marks the passing of time and the changing of minds, a continued rebirth.
  15. Oct 4, 2019
    89
    Olsen suggests that nihilism and optimism are closer than you think, that what feels like knowing yourself is almost always revealed as delusion. On All Mirrors, she glories in that tumult, and the sparks that fly illuminate her bravura turn.
  16. Oct 4, 2019
    85
    Angel is unprepared to commit to anything in the long term, but is always fully committed to now, and this has allowed her to make her boldest and most purposeful step yet.
  17. Oct 14, 2019
    80
    The one-time folkie’s fourth album exorcises romantic demons by taking another bold leap forward.
  18. Oct 4, 2019
    80
    There is a true communion with the brimmed-over melodies and rhythms, but a desperation that seems to know solemn silence isn’t what’s left over. Often, the listen feels like an impossible reprieve in a crumbling structure, with a rich echo helping to sell you on your own resolve. Not unlike love itself, it is a riveting, wrenching, and absurdly rewarding experience.
  19. 80
    Where Del Rey’s music feels icier to the touch and more pop-oriented, Olsen sings from the heart, reflected in the melancholic, often soaring, even experimental backing that hits home more than it misses. It may take some time and uninterrupted concentration, but the expansive All Mirrors grows on you with repeated plays.
  20. Oct 3, 2019
    80
    It is rewarding: the sound of Angel Olsen skilfully mapping out an unanticipated new territory for herself, further out on the left-field. Nothing on All Mirrors ends up quite where you expect, including the artist who made it.
  21. 80
    The result is a record as expansive as it is overwhelming.
  22. Q Magazine
    Sep 30, 2019
    80
    All Mirrors strikes an impressive balance between familiar and strange - resulting in an album that's startling and breathtakingly beautiful. [Nov 2019, p.109]
  23. Uncut
    Sep 30, 2019
    80
    All Mirrors is her boldest reinvention yet. [Nov 2019, p.30]
  24. Mojo
    Sep 30, 2019
    80
    Behind the parachute silk and dry ice, the smoke and mirrors, stands a record in high emotional definition, its outline becoming sharper by the second. [Nov 2019, p.92]
  25. Sep 30, 2019
    80
    All Mirrors retains a good amount of iconic devastation. Olsen’s timeless, musing lyrics are wise as ever, if perhaps more cynical than before. Yet there is a new, almost paradoxical, quality to the sound, as though it comes both from the past and the future.
  26. Sep 30, 2019
    70
    All Mirrors is a record that is so intuitive and interior, that it feels it could be difficult to penetrate - but it’s one hell of a prize if you give it the chance.
  27. Oct 4, 2019
    67
    The music is gorgeous but feels labored over, like pottery lacquered with one too many layers of shellac. Hopefully Olsen will also still release her stripped-back take on All Mirrors, as it’s the dressing—not the songs themselves—that stumbles.
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 272 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 46 out of 272
  1. Oct 4, 2019
    10
    If you’re intentionally tanking this album’s score, grow up. Taylor, Ariana, or whoever your “fave” is would be horrified to learn you’reIf you’re intentionally tanking this album’s score, grow up. Taylor, Ariana, or whoever your “fave” is would be horrified to learn you’re using their name to tear down other women. Full Review »
  2. Oct 4, 2019
    10
    Seriously? People are ripping on this album and comparing it to Lover by TS? Get the **** out. Stop talking about who has “the” album of theSeriously? People are ripping on this album and comparing it to Lover by TS? Get the **** out. Stop talking about who has “the” album of the year and realize all of these artists are in completely different fields. So if you don’t like this go listen to Lover and drink your cotton candy-blended drinks. Now if you want to listen to one of the most innovative artists of our time, stay here! This album is cool! Elusive and instrumentally experimental! Takes you somewhere else. Between this and Lana’s album, this has been an amazing season for albums, in my opinion. Full Review »
  3. Oct 4, 2019
    10
    Pretty shameful to see the swifties rating this masterpiece with a zero only because their fave can't do something like this