Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Nov 14, 2019If the first half of Our Pathetic Age is DJ Shadow pushing forward, his muse challenging and expanding his sonic palette in ways not always accessible or satisfactory, the back half is his class reunion, a trip through nearly all 30 years of his career that revisits sounds and styles across his output, rejiggering them for an anxiety-inducing, more contemporary aural aesthetic. ... The two create an impressive testament to DJ Shadow’s creative nomadism, uncompromising and imposing in its aggressive music
-
The WireDec 9, 2019DJ Shadow’s latest is a hulking, 26 track beast that shifts from uptempo breakbeat and rubbery electropop to string-laden suites with relative ease. ... With synthesized tones ranging from lush to jarring, the instrumentals indicate the ear for texture that has characterised Shadow’s work since 1996’s Entroducing. [Jan 2020, p.69]
-
Nov 19, 2019He masterfully delivers a snapshot of a disjointed, vibrant and inherently flawed system as seen through one of electronic music's longstanding visionaries.
-
Nov 15, 2019“Our Pathetic Age” addresses big topics — social media alienation, nefarious government oppression, the suppression of individuality — but refuses to knuckle under. By breaking sounds loose from the strictures of time and genre, DJ Shadow implies that the music still runs free.
-
Nov 14, 2019As is frequently the case with double albums padded with filler, Out Pathetic Age’s biggest problem is that too much of it feels disposable, anodyne, or tossed off. But Shadow still manages to get some strong work out of both himself and his guests, and he deserves credit for not trying to merely recreate the same trick over and over.
-
Nov 14, 2019Perhaps not one for the casual fan, but there’s plenty to unpack for the long-time admirer.
-
Nov 14, 2019Its first half is devoted to the biggest chunk of original instrumental music he’s released, and it comes with lovely, welcome surprises. ... Not every track hits hard, but the “Vocal Suite” still feels like a cohesive album, and its punchiest tracks take many involved to a level they haven’t reached in years.
-
Nov 25, 2019Our Pathetic Age reflects the way much of Shadow’s post-Endtroducing material has lacked structure, with the producer happy to throw ideas at the page, even if many of them don’t stick.
-
UncutJan 8, 2020A double LP by name, but distant cousins rather than telepathic twins. [Feb 2020, p.33]
-
Nov 25, 2019Like the online living some of the rappers rail against, the album can be fatiguing with extended periods of exposure, and there's an excess of information to process.
-
Q MagazineNov 19, 2019He remains a maestro at the mixing desk, even as the album's split-down-the-middle concept undermines his genre-splicing strengths. [Jan 2020, p.106]
-
MojoNov 14, 2019Its instrumental first disc a foreboding seas of sputtering synths, dislocated drums and disorienting ideas. Yet rare moments of beauty peak through. ... A similar wilful primitivism pervades disc two. [Dec 2019, p.95]
-
Nov 22, 2019Sitting through a slogging collage of beats for 40 minutes before ever hearing a verse is no easy task. It would be one thing if these tracks had a common theme holding them together, but there’s no central voice to bind one to the next. ... The only thing that will keep listeners pressing on is the star-studded back half of the record. The incredible amount of talent Shadow recruited is exciting.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 9 out of 11
-
Mixed: 2 out of 11
-
Negative: 0 out of 11
-
Nov 20, 2019