Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Feb 24, 2015The man who cut Complicated Game is the more mature McMurtry has figured out how to deliver the fine songs he writes and get their qualities on tape.
-
Feb 24, 2015It’s an album that shows again and again that very few songwriters on this planet illuminate the oft-unfair rules of this game or the inner workings of the players quite like he can.
-
Feb 24, 2015Staunch and undeterred to the brink of defiance, Complicated Game finds McMurtry’s rugged resilience again setting the tone.
-
MojoApr 22, 2015There's a sense in almost all the songs of open roads, either beckoning or closed in, or both. [May 2015, p.99]
-
Feb 24, 2015Complicated Game is brilliant album, dense and thoughtful as McMurtry swirls around inside the heads of another set of fascinating characters.
-
Mar 11, 2015The new album doesn’t have the political commentary that we saw on those two [Childish Things (2005) and Just Us Kids (2008)], but it’s likely we’re going to see Complicated Game on the nominee list come next year. It’s that good.
-
Feb 24, 2015He's a storyteller with a literary knack for using detail and narrative to draw complex, relatable characters, and his storytelling finesse has never been more evident than it is here.
-
Jul 8, 2015This 53-year-old minor folk vet’s drawl doesn’t obscure his flow, making it all the easier to follow his tales in real-time, inhabiting a husband cleaning his deer rifle or the bent-backed Deaver who watched as “Uncle Sam took away the neighbors’ land.”
-
UncutFeb 25, 2015McMurtry's flair for the cinematic shines brighter than ever. [Apr 2015, p.78]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 12 out of 13
-
Mixed: 0 out of 13
-
Negative: 1 out of 13
-
Dec 22, 2015
-
Sep 9, 2015