Metascore
68

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Mojo
    80
    The band make each piece their own on this, their most satisfying set for years. [Dec 2008, p.102]
  2. Bringing in an unknown vocalist, Minneapolis alt-rocker Wendy Lewis, may sound like a risk, but it works exceedingly well.
  3. This is one of the most compelling releases yet by one of the new jazz's finest bands to emerge in the 21st century.
  4. For All I Care adds vocalist Wendy Lewis to the line-up of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King, and though it inches the Bad Plus closer to the pop mainstream, it never loses the particular rhythmic and harmonic quirks that have defined them so far.
  5. On their sixth CD, the inventive Minneapolis trio court disaster by adding a vocalist. Thankfully, she's Wendy Lewis, an indie-rock vet who floats Kurt Cobain's numbed equivocations over a capsizing groove here on "Lithium" and even nails that bone-chilling scream.
  6. If this all sounds like a dog’s breakfast of sound, it is--the tunes themselves only occasionally work.
  7. There's less jazz improv, but it's a set that's going to find the Bad Plus a lot of new friends, and recover some old ones.
  8. Uncut
    60
    Here they continue their mission with bashes at Wilco, Pink Floyd, and a straight-but-great take on Yes' 'Long Distance Runaround.' [Dec 2008, p.81]
  9. Under The Radar
    60
    For All I Care, the trio’s first all-covers album, underscores their capacity for democratizing yet again, but the fitful ease of amalgamating Ligeti’s stark neoclassicism ('Fem (Etude No. 8)') with Heart’s goofy lilt ('Barracuda') sounds too harmless, with or without a powerful singer. [Winter 2009]
  10. If anything, the group's sixth studio disc is a little too reverent, not so much on the instrumentals as on the pop-song covers.
  11. In the end, For All I Care isn’t a bad album. It’s just a very unremarkable effort from a band that we’ve grown to expect so much more from.

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