• Record Label: Warp
  • Release Date: Feb 7, 2006
Metascore
68

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Filter
    86
    Makes for exquisite travel music. [#19, p.96]
  2. Spin
    83
    By staying on his uniquely off-kilter game, he's become an unlikely career artist. [Mar 2006, p.95]
  3. This mini album sometimes feels as if it’s thrown together like quickly-packed luggage.
  4. Less inquisitive and much more personal [than 'Silence'], Security Screenings' giddy mosaic of psychedelic disorientation has the morning-after effect of tweezing dream from memory.
  5. Urb
    80
    With Screenings, Herren continues making complex compositions sound wonderfully smooth. [Mar 2006, p.116]
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    75
    At its best, the music's so hypnotic you won't miss [the vocals]. [24 Feb 2006, p.65]
  7. If Surrounded by Silence was Prefuse 73 beside himself, or even ten steps behind himself, Security Screenings is a commendable return to the path blazed by One Word Extinguisher and its subsequent outtakes.
  8. Herren has actually cooked up a brilliantly soothing and entertaining morsel for his fans.
  9. Q Magazine
    70
    Intricate yet funky, it mostly comes together to mesmeric effect. [Mar 2006, p.111]
  10. Rolling Stone
    70
    It's a sustained and exhilarating trip back to Herren's futuristic roots. [23 Mar 2006, p.66]
  11. The Prefuse of past years is replaced by plenty of airy distortion (reminiscent of his work with the Books and his side project, Savath + Savalas), and nods to the hip-hop beatwork of his early Warp records.
  12. Security Screenings is a marked improvement over last year's directionless Surrounded by Silence.
  13. Billboard
    60
    A disjointed affair on first listen, "Security Screening" eventually reveals itself as the mirror image of main man Scott Herren's multiple musical personalities. [11 Feb 2006]
  14. Under The Radar
    60
    The great moments aren't enough to carry a convincing musical thread throughout the record. [#12, p.92]
  15. Security Screenings is a solid record, one that will probably sound much better in the context of Prefuse 73's catalog twenty years from now than we'll ever give it credit for today.
  16. It’s absorbing and fascinating, but for as much as it would seem to be the polar opposite of Surrounded by Silence, it actually suffers from a remarkably similar affliction, that being that we, as listeners, are offered no insight into what Herren is trying to say.
  17. Alternative Press
    60
    Herren's gift for finding order--and even melody--amid such chaos is too strong to allow this collection to be written off as self-indulgent. [Apr 2006, p.224]
  18. There's no arguing that it's pretty entertaining.... But there's the nagging sense that it's all sound and fury.
  19. Mojo
    60
    Herren never lets his music become too easy-going or the listener too settled. [Mar 2006, p.108]
  20. Paste Magazine
    60
    Uneven. [Apr/May 2006, p.117]
  21. Prefuse 73 is in a rut. And a bad one at that.
  22. Uncut
    40
    His cluttered beatscapes suggest random sounds in search of a meaning. [Mar 2006, p.103]
User Score
tbd

No user score yet- Awaiting 2 more ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. May 13, 2014
    10
    This is by far Prefuse 73's best album ever, I love every song on the disc. My top favorite songs are With Dirt And Two Texts: AfternoonThis is by far Prefuse 73's best album ever, I love every song on the disc. My top favorite songs are With Dirt And Two Texts: Afternoon Version and Later Version With Love, When The Grip Lets You Go. This album is just brilliantly done and it will always be in my collection. Full Review »
  2. ChrisF-T
    Feb 10, 2006
    9
    Pay attention Boards of Canada, if you released a record last year with this much creativity you could have made another classic. But, alas, Pay attention Boards of Canada, if you released a record last year with this much creativity you could have made another classic. But, alas, this tops Campfire Headphase by a point or two. Thank you GSH for keeping experimental hip hop alive. Full Review »