Ivywild
by Night Beds
Metascore
66

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 11
  3. Negative: 2 out of 11
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  1. New Musical Express (NME)
    Aug 12, 2015
    80
    At 16 tracks long, it’s a dense, textured offering that--on numbers like the lush ‘Love Streams’--manages to shimmer with both nimble experimentation and languid pop finesse.
  2. AllMusic
    Aug 7, 2015
    80
    Acknowledging that Night Beds' strict chamber-folk fans are bound to be disappointed if not horrified, taken on its own Ivywild is sonically rich, adventurous, envelopingly wistful, and undeniably stunning.
  3. PopMatters
    Aug 3, 2015
    80
    The daring of Night Beds here is commendable, and overstuffed though it is, Ivywild is a beautiful and haunting album whose only flaw is that it offers too much of a good thing.
  5. Consequence
    Aug 3, 2015
    75
    It succeeds in its commitment to being, first and foremost, a Night Beds album, primarily concerned with mining the past for its shining moments of beauty and disaster. For this reason, it never feels like anything other than Yellen staying true to himself, to what inspires him and makes him hungry.
  6. American Songwriter
    Aug 7, 2015
    70
    Those willing to put forth the effort will be rewarded with a beautiful, stimulating and eclectic album that stands alone in a genre of its own making.
  7. Uncut
    Aug 3, 2015
    70
    This is something wholly unexpected. [Sep 2015, p.78]
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  8. The Line of Best Fit
    Aug 5, 2015
    65
    Yellen’s vision is ambitious and expansive, but not always easy to digest.
  9. Mojo
    Aug 3, 2015
    60
    The glitchy electronics hard shield his soulful voice, but on tracks like Corner the digital pulse yields more human warmth. [Sep 2015, p.95]
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  10. Drowned In Sound
    Aug 19, 2015
    50
    It is sprawling, messy, and bursting at the seams--but certainly when listening to it, you see how it could have worked with a bit of quality assurance.
  11. Pitchfork
    Aug 6, 2015
    32
    More deadening than the suffocating arrangements and production or the nonexistent hooks is a tiresome perspective that goes beyond the Weeknd and connects to a celebrated lineage of male authors who assume an inherent profundity in treating a psychosexual crisis of mid-twenties masculinity as miserably as possible.
  12. Absolute Punk (Staff reviews)
    Aug 10, 2015
    25
    Ivywild is an unlistenable mess.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. sfurn
    Aug 19, 2015
    7
    A definite departure from Country Sleep but with peaks even higher. It's a shame that the album is so long as there is some filler here thatA definite departure from Country Sleep but with peaks even higher. It's a shame that the album is so long as there is some filler here that waters down all the fantastic songwriting and production. Had it been pared down to 10 or 11 tracks, this would be a top 5 or 10 album of the 2015 for me.… Full Review »
  2. smsarmani
    Aug 15, 2015
    9
    mixture of pop indie plus a bit of electronic pop....
    not really bad, i think you should give it a try
    kinda like lights mixed with andrew    mixture of pop indie plus a bit of electronic pop....
    not really bad, i think you should give it a try
    kinda like lights mixed with andrew belle
    so im giving the album a 7............................    … Full Review »
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