Good Songs for Bad People
by Drab City
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
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  1. PopMatters
    Jun 16, 2020
    80
    On their assured, plaintively lovely and frequently agitated opening salvo, Drab City have concocted a minor masterpiece of electronic phantasms and rumbling desert soul from grim tidings, alienation, 21st-century hauntological aesthetics, and dissonant harmonics. It's impressive work that emanates both a seamless sprawl and a mounting dread.
  2. Mojo
    Jun 11, 2020
    80
    Haunting, unsettling hybrid. [Jul 2020, p.83]
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  3. Paste Magazine
    Jun 16, 2020
    77
    Though they’ve tucked their ideals into the music so that they serve the songs, the themes on Good Songs For Bad People are nevertheless as resonant as ever.
  5. Uncut
    Jun 11, 2020
    70
    Most crucial is a penchant for '60s chanson's soft-focus harmonies and production values. [Jul 2020, p.30]
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  6. AllMusic
    Jun 11, 2020
    70
    While a little unfocused stylistically, the recordings have a consistently dreamy, submerged sound quality that evokes a past life or at least an obscure record-store find. While the songs' narratives present Drab City as a disappointing destination full of broken hearts and gentrification, its immersive musical allure makes it worth the price of passage.
  7. musicOMH.com
    Jun 11, 2020
    70
    Good Songs for Bad People maintains a high standard almost throughout, but it does tail off a little disappointingly at the end.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Ricko
    Sep 10, 2020
    8
    Although not necessarily experimental, this is one of the most unusual listens of the year and in many ways is a perfect musical companion toAlthough not necessarily experimental, this is one of the most unusual listens of the year and in many ways is a perfect musical companion to one of the strangest years in modern history. Drab City take numerous genres and blend them into an eerie fusion of dream pop and weird backing beats. They have an unsettling, spidery guitar style that plays over everything else giving it both a pleasant and uneasy feeling. It's hard to describe this record but the best I can do is that it sounds like your viewing scenes from a masterful arthouse film but one that was filmed using a dirty lens. Sometimes it has a cold, bleak urban feel, while other tracks feel like soundtracks to a walk around an arty European city a la Berlin or the like. It's hard record to pin down and describe and to be quite honest you'd be better served spending some concentrated time listening to it than reading about it. A big thumbs up.… Full Review »
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