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KicK iii Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 51 Ratings

  • Summary: One of the four releases on the same day for Arca's KICK anthology is said to be "more manic, violently euphoric and aggressively psychedelic."
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Dec 7, 2021
    83
    Pairing the risk-taking instinct of her best music with the swaggering confidence she projects as a kind of cyborg diva, it is the best of all five albums in the set, and one of her strongest full-lengths to date.
  2. Dec 3, 2021
    80
    It’s a restless, challenging listen – beats that sound like gunfire, churning and gibbering electronic noise. She distorts her vocals in ways that sometimes remind you of Prince as his female alter-ego Camille, or the helium samples of old hardcore, though they generally sound quite nightmarish.
  3. 80
    KicK iii is a more turbulent entry in the Arca universe: its relentless ability to generate movement out of stillness makes it one of her most accomplished works to date.
  4. ‘iii’ goes in hardest, taking its cues from the harshest strains of club music, and beckoning in pure, confrontational chaos almost immediately.
  5. Dec 8, 2021
    80
    Anyone who's seen her DJ could tell you about the confrontational aggression she hasn't yet captured on an official album. KicK iii tries, pushing the choppy, freeform and unrelenting part of Arca to the fore and pulverizing the listener over its brief, 36-minute runtime.
  6. Jan 4, 2022
    80
    Taken together, the albums are overwhelming in their stylistic diversity; one minute, she’s serving up clattering electro on the likes of iii’s ‘Skullqueen’ or ‘Ripples’, and the next, we’re hearing her break classic ideas of what ambience should mean to fit her own mould on the Oliver Coates-featuring ‘Esuna’
  7. The Wire
    Dec 22, 2021
    60
    Having all this material together is bittersweet – rather than four distinct sets, couldn’t these styles have been brought together in a more innovative way? Arca’s work is invariably surrounded by much chatter about disrupting musical forms, but four albums divided into four distinct moods feels like an unusually conservative vehicle for her ideas. [Jan 2022, p.59]

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 2 out of 13
  1. Dec 6, 2021
    10
    very refreshing album. arca is leaning more towards avant garde pop and i love it
  2. Dec 8, 2021
    10
    Kick iii PROBABLY is the Best from the Kick era, Arca just made a good album
  3. Dec 14, 2021
    10
    This album is easily Arca's most evenly balanced work in terms of structure and rhythm. She uses many harsh transients in songs likeThis album is easily Arca's most evenly balanced work in terms of structure and rhythm. She uses many harsh transients in songs like Skullqueen and Rubberneck, with more calm rhythmic transients in Intimate Flesh and Joya. Overall, this work is something from the future, and I believe she will inspire a new kind of creativity, hence my rating of 10. Expand
  4. Dec 19, 2021
    9
    If i need to say, this is the best KiCK in the 5 KiCKs, the album feels like you're in a raising hell. Everything in this album is wild andIf i need to say, this is the best KiCK in the 5 KiCKs, the album feels like you're in a raising hell. Everything in this album is wild and free. Although, this is my favorite album besides Xen, Mutant and KiCk i. This queen is living in the future. Expand
  5. Jan 26, 2022
    9
    This nasty, edgy, technological, industrial, dystopian, transhumance, avant-garde and noise is, AWESOME. This is the future of the music!
  6. Dec 21, 2021
    9
    The best of the later part of the kick releases, just behind Kick I (personal opinion), I love the dystopian sounds that altogether make theThe best of the later part of the kick releases, just behind Kick I (personal opinion), I love the dystopian sounds that altogether make the beat of each song, its just an audible orgasm to be able to hear that kind of stuff.
    Its not a 10 because as I said, the best of the kick series (for the only reason of how much complete it is and how it works as a whole album) is the kick I album.
    Expand
  7. Dec 11, 2021
    0
    IDK WHY BUT GOT THE FEELING THAT MOST PEOPLE DIDNT NOTICE THIS ÁLBUM WAS RELEASED COUPLE DAYS AGO, BUT, JUST LISTENED ON SPOTIFY AND I LOVEEEEEEIT

See all 13 User Reviews