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- Critic score
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Apr 12, 2019An hour-long LP with little joy or even relief, one that is nearly static in energy level despite a carousel of producers.
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Apr 8, 2019On Free Spirit, Khalid sounds caught between wanting to play a superstar and wanting to be himself, with the result that he sounds like neither.
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Apr 5, 2019It's frustrating, then, that Free Spirit's sanded-down sprawl more often than not threatens to suffocate any presence of a personality imbued in the music itself.
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Apr 8, 2019Free Spirit is Khalid's coming-of-age story: it's well-constructed, but already feels too predictable at this point.
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Apr 17, 2019Free Spirit isn’t an outright failure. For it to be a failure, Khalid would have to at least take a few risks.
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Apr 8, 2019Free Spirit is a patchy album from an artist who is perfectly capable of delivering nifty falsetto lines and smooth come-ons, but who is also far too predisposed to sloppy downtempo numbers.
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Apr 4, 2019Honesty is often lost in overproduction, both in the music and in his lyricism. It is listenable, summery and occasionally thought-provoking, but tired in its laboured pushes for emotional sincerity.
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Apr 10, 2019Free Spirit isn’t the coming of age album Khalid intended it to be, though in his nascent adulthood he has mastered something. Unfortunately, it’s the art of being innocuous.
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Apr 5, 2019The LP isn’t overly burdened by the bold-faced guest spots you’d expect on a follow-up by an artist coming off a Top 10 debut. Instead, it gets tripped up by a different sophomore pitfall: Now that he isn’t an underdog, Khalid lapses into a little too much new-star introspection, exploring an ivory-tower aloneness that can recall the Weeknd’s goth-‘n’-B.
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Apr 8, 2019For a burgeoning artist still establishing his signature style, Khalid settles into a surprising complacency here, failing to experiment with the template of his debut.
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Apr 4, 2019It’s hard to escape the feeling that something of his originality has been lost en route.
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Apr 4, 2019A very credible record with no real mistakes--but no real personality, either.
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Apr 8, 2019At 17 tracks, the album feels long, but at its best, Free Spirit finds Khalid soaring closer to becoming pop’s next big star.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 47 out of 81
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Mixed: 21 out of 81
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Negative: 13 out of 81
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Apr 7, 2019
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Apr 17, 2022A very mediocre release from Khalid, I got bored less than halfway through and I can barley remember any of the tracklist and that's that :/
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Jun 22, 2021