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House of Sugar
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House of Sugar Image
Metascore
86

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 49 Ratings

  • Summary: The latest full-length release for the Philadelphia artist features contributions from Samuel Acchione, Molly Germer, John Heywood, Tom Kelly, Jacob Portrait, and Emily Yacina.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Sep 13, 2019
    90
    In House of Sugar, Alex Giannascoli relinquishes the ownership in authorship, providing a venue for those voices that regale him to decompress, elongate, saunter. It is roomy in House of Sugar, where possession recedes into usufruct.
  2. Exclaim
    Sep 11, 2019
    90
    House of Sugar steps into volatile, subterranean moods not quite grounded in reality, flitting towards soupy daydreams and murky fantasy worlds. Giannascoli's creativity is endless and as he continues his never-ending output of mysteriously disorienting and strangely familiar songs, he's becoming stronger and weirder with every album.
  3. The 405
    Sep 17, 2019
    85
    House of Sugar is not only special because it is the most consistent, detailed, adventurous Alex G record so far, but because it also clarifies what Giannascoli has been working towards all along and positions itself as an opus of one of this decade’s most defining indie artists.
  4. The Skinny
    Sep 12, 2019
    80
    It is intentionally playful and mesmerising. It’s in these moments, when Giannascoli flaunts his ability to turn the bedroom pop moniker he once personified on its head with studio trickery and letting his most outré ideas play out, that the record then rewards you.
  5. Spin
    Sep 17, 2019
    80
    Alex G continues to find the sensitivity in rough edges, and offers uneven poetry for our own relentlessly uneven lives. ... An overarching commitment to juxtaposition and bricolage that’s palpable throughout the tracklist. In their brevity and slapdash composition, they feel like essential components of the Alex G m.o. It’s that m.o. that holds House of Sugar together, even as it rejects a single unified concept or “story.”
  6. No Ripcord
    Sep 16, 2019
    80
    House of Sugar is just as bewildering as Rocket, even if Giannascoli is too much of a tunesmith to keep things too abstract. He's a cunning songwriter who will take on a challenge whenever an idea seems to complex to untangle, even if his tender side will always be there.
  7. Paste Magazine
    Sep 11, 2019
    77
    The newest record from Alex Giannascoli at times improves on the inscrutable, circuitous experimentation of his Domino debut, Beach Music. At other times, it refines the accessible but still characteristically sauntering country-lite of Rocket, his masterful second album for the British indie label. In other words, House of Sugar sounds like a middle ground between the two albums that preceded it.

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Max_15character
    Sep 13, 2019
    10
    The highs are some of his most catchy and heartfelt songs with the perfect amount of Alex’s unique touch to separate the album from the restThe highs are some of his most catchy and heartfelt songs with the perfect amount of Alex’s unique touch to separate the album from the rest of the “indie” rock genre - the lows are his most tolerable, for the first time really enjoyable, forages into heavy experimental noise tracks. This is a diverse collection of songs that is somehow very cohesive as a unit and makes for one of the best albums I’ve heard in a while.… Expand
  2. JulenLuan
    Oct 2, 2019
    10
    Disfrutable desde principio a fin, cada canción está compuesta perfectamente y, como cada álbum de Alex, te transporta a una historia distintaDisfrutable desde principio a fin, cada canción está compuesta perfectamente y, como cada álbum de Alex, te transporta a una historia distinta en cada track. El sonido se acerca más a lo melodioso, que como sugiere el título, vuelven al álbum dulce e increíblemente agradable para el oído, aún así incluye un par de experimentaciones, las cuales son bien ejecutadas y no cortan la armonía del álbum. Líricmente magistral, In My Arms es mi nueva canción favorita de Alex.… Expand
  4. All_ButTrU4
    Feb 11, 2022
    7
    This felt therapeutic. The openers pessimistic 'hopeless ' hammered in by the dejected "not to day" after the optimistic "i want to walk awayThis felt therapeutic. The openers pessimistic 'hopeless ' hammered in by the dejected "not to day" after the optimistic "i want to walk away from you" that encapsulates addiction to anything you're trying to quit. This record deals with its melancholy with enough levity so that it doesn't feel weighed down. His trademark lofi indie experiments work in places they shouldn't like the oddly abrasive "near". When alex confronts a song he seems to allow them to write themselves as they feel natural and low maintenance(in the best of ways). The almost acoustic quality lends an emotional depth which he outlines with poignant songs such as the grieving "hope" of comforting "southern sky". This isn't too large a departure from "rocket" so much as it is a perfecting. Favourites:southern sky,hope,gretel,bad man… Expand

Awards & Rankings

27
#27 Best Album of 2019