Shake the Spirit
by Elle King
  • Record Label: RCA
  • Release Date: Oct 19, 2018
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
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  1. StevenX
    Oct 6, 2019
    5
    While the brassy King drawl is still in fine form, on Album Two it's buried in spaghetti-western reverb, filtered through what sounds like Jack White's junior-high harmonica mic , and wasted on too many numbers that sound more like improv over chord repetitions that repeat way too long. The actual songs here vary from what sounds like the result of the label begging her to be moreWhile the brassy King drawl is still in fine form, on Album Two it's buried in spaghetti-western reverb, filtered through what sounds like Jack White's junior-high harmonica mic , and wasted on too many numbers that sound more like improv over chord repetitions that repeat way too long. The actual songs here vary from what sounds like the result of the label begging her to be more commercial to "It Girl", which sounds like King begging to get thrown off the label and playlists worldwide. King has always been a rough diamond (hell, it's part of her appeal), but "It Girl" should be renamed "Ew, Girl" - gross for gross' sake. Now that she has the sophomore jinx out of the way, here's hoping she can tighten up the music, drag the production into this century, and become the Joplin she's already proven she has in her.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Variety
    Oct 22, 2018
    80
    King has gotten a pretty good album out of a pretty bad spell, and we can use her candor and her voice--not just figuratively but literally, since those bluesy, gutsy tones rarely make it into any kind of rock and roll these days, much less the alternative kind.
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  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Oct 19, 2018
    83
    Sassy yet surprisingly vulnerable. [19/26 Oct 2018, p.95]
  3. AllMusic
    Oct 19, 2018
    70
    Its sonic audacity is so bracing, it's relatively easy to forgive the lyrical stumbles, which crystallize on the dirty puns of "It Girl," but that's nearly beside the point because, unlike Love Stuff, Shake the Spirit never seems indebted to Elle King's idols. Instead, it embodies her own bold, bawdy heart.
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