- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Mar 29, 2012This is a record that buzzes with ideas, it's giddy with the noise it makes, and once its initial rush fades away, it still has plenty to offer in substantive songs and sheer sonic pleasure.
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MagnetMar 20, 2012It's a wonderful-sounding record, too, lushly textured... and one that demands to be played at full volume. [No.85 p.61]
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Entertainment WeeklyMar 28, 2012His kicks encompass dub reggae, acoustic soul, and excellently twitchy psychedelia. [30 Mar 2012, p.75]
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Mar 23, 2012Sonically speaking, Weller seriously kicks it.
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Mar 20, 2012Sonik Kicks is the sound of Paul Weller growing old the only way he could--not particularly gracefully, but with no small amount of style.
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Mar 20, 2012Weller has made an extremely worthy case for remaining the master of his craft.
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Mar 19, 2012His most enjoyable LP since Our Favourite Shop.
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Mar 15, 2012Weller seems enthusiastic, upbeat and genuinely inventive across the whole LP, with only a couple of minor missteps throughout.
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Mar 15, 2012You have to marvel that a 53-year-old man can still make music so brimming with adventure.
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UncutMar 13, 2012The kids know where it's at, and so, in this career-high purple patch, does Paul Weller. [Apr 2012, p.69]
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Mar 12, 2012Psychedelic, kaleidoscopic pop... heady and brilliant.
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Mar 8, 2012While not as immediately career-defining as Wake Up the Nation, there's no denying that with Sonik Kicks, Paul Weller is continuing the courageous, exploratory course established on 2008's 22 Dreams.
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Q MagazineFeb 21, 2012All the evidence anyone needs that the 50-something Weller is in the midst of a supersonic prime. [Mar 2012, p. 98]
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Apr 3, 2012Sonik Kicks may prove his most intriguing effort yet, an album awash in psychedelic suggestion, cosmic noodling and swooping, soaring performances driven by fresh enthusiasm.
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Mar 28, 2012Sonik Kicks rather helpfully lives up to its name.
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Mar 20, 2012Most definitely one of the best albums of the year so far.
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Apr 3, 2012With Sonik Kicks, Weller's silk-and-smoke voice sounds as good as ever, and his status as a soulful, folky, yet forceful songsmith remains ironclad. Next time around, though, an extra round of editing might not hurt.
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Mar 27, 2012Sonik Kicks stays right at that line, but teeters just enough to keep it from realizing the artistic success that it approaches.
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Mar 26, 2012Sonik Kicks is a good record, but it doesn't have the songwriting depth and range of its two predecessors, and as admirable as it is that Weller is still playing with his formula and searching for something new to do with it, the electronics here do the songs few favors.
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Mar 27, 2012It's not until everything slows down for the ballad "By the Waters" that classic Weller appears.
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MojoMar 22, 2012An ongoing reconnection with the experimental dandy in the mirror lends his latest work's stylistic pinballing a fun quotient that compensates for it's unevenness. [Apr 2012, p.84]
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Mar 19, 2012Sonik Kicks barrels along hectically, throwing out ideas like a particularly exuberant catherine wheel, though nothing ever quite matches the exquisite shock of that dub bliss-out [on "Study in Blue"].
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Mar 8, 2012Throughout Sonik Kicks, it somehow feels as if the Krautrock vibe is a needless intrusion, an unnecessary welding and meshing of styles.
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Mar 28, 2012The album finds Weller throwing sounds against the wall and seeing what sticks. Unfortunately, not much does.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 11
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Mixed: 1 out of 11
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Negative: 0 out of 11
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May 13, 2012
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Apr 30, 2012
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Apr 5, 2012