User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 13 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
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  1. Dec 22, 2015
    7
    Great to hear James is still out there making good music. A little bit of same-ness takes over this album by the end, but as usual, lyrics are great. "you got to me" and "she loves me" are favorites..
  2. Sep 9, 2015
    9
    We're three quarters of the way in, and this is, by far, still my favorite album of the year.

    I hate it when websites have character minimums........

Awards & Rankings

Metascore
87

Universal acclaim - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Jul 8, 2015
    80
    This 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.”
  2. Mojo
    Apr 22, 2015
    80
    There's a sense in almost all the songs of open roads, either beckoning or closed in, or both. [May 2015, p.99]
  3. Mar 11, 2015
    80
    The 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.