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Negro Swan Image
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 26 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 84 Ratings

  • Summary: The fourth full-length release for Dev Hynes as Blood Orange was self-produced and features guest appearances from A$AP Rocky, Ian Isiah, Steve Lacy, Janet Mock, Anne Muldrow, Project Pat, Puff Daddy, and Tei Shi.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 26
  2. Negative: 0 out of 26
  1. Aug 30, 2018
    100
    He’s given us not just a great album, but a piece of himself that stands as a whole truth that need not be escaped, but rather, treasured.
  2. Aug 23, 2018
    91
    Negro Swan is a grand work that gives credit to the pioneers of the culture while building a path forward within that framework, placing Hynes firmly in the canon as one of the most insightful musicians of his generation.
  3. 90
    The past few years have seen Dev Hynes become one of the most prominent, important voices in pop. Negro Swan builds upon this legacy.
  4. Aug 23, 2018
    80
    Intentionally or not, Hynes has surreptitiously convinced listeners to deeply engage with his art; we're digging for the grooves, searching out the hooks while questioning our own habits and assumptions, as we look for our own meaning in the music. And there's plenty in Negro Swan.
  5. Q Magazine
    Aug 28, 2018
    80
    Here he leads by example, creating wonderfully complex, changeable music that dares to be different. [Oct 2018, p.109]
  6. Aug 24, 2018
    76
    Slippery and cryptic, Negro Swan blurs boundaries between the finished and the unfinished; between focused deliberation and thrown-together spontaneity; between fly-on-the-wall conversations and self-contained songs; between indie experimentalism and overground pop; between insider and outsider, black and white, straight and gay, trans and cis; between taxing depletion and invigorating replenishment.
  7. Mojo
    Aug 23, 2018
    60
    Negro Swan is more consolidation than the ext great leap forwards. [Oct 2018, p.91]

See all 26 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Sep 9, 2018
    10
    Amazing album with perfect production and performances one of the best albums of the year so far!!!
  2. Sep 10, 2018
    10
    This is a rich and rewarding listen, has its own sense of humor, purpose and identity as well. It's also a challenging listen. The onlyThis is a rich and rewarding listen, has its own sense of humor, purpose and identity as well. It's also a challenging listen. The only quibble I have (Not a detraction, just personal) is some of the spoken word book-ends on some of the tracks kind of take away from the experience. Overall it's a strong recommend though. Expand
  3. Nov 15, 2018
    10
    _____ The music of Devonte Hynes is always some kind of inexplicable magic. So much light and charm in it ... and this is absolutely without_____ The music of Devonte Hynes is always some kind of inexplicable magic. So much light and charm in it ... and this is absolutely without exaggeration.

    _____ And how does this person turn from one album to another to create such musical wonders? I think that this is one simple explanation: his music is not "squeezed out of the finger," but comes from the soul.
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