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Q MagazineDec 13, 2016Tesfaye can't decide if he's having the best time f his life or the worst. [Feb 2017, p.119]
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Dec 1, 2016Starboy is fine, it’s grand and it will do, and it really should be so much more.
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Nov 30, 2016His guests include Lana Del Rey, whose affectless manner makes her a perfect match for him; though the best grooves here come courtesy of Daft Punk, bookending the album with the scudding title-track and Michael Jackson homage “I Feel It Coming”.
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Nov 30, 2016The productions--the majority of which involve Doc McKinney and/or Cirkut, low-lighted by maneater dance-punk dud "False Alarm"--are roughly as variable in style as they are in quality. When pared down to its ten best songs, Starboy sounds like Tesfaye's most accomplished work.
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Nov 30, 2016If there’s a problem here, it’s the obvious 2016 one: length.
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Nov 29, 2016He remains an exceptionally talented vocalist, yet none of the many studio wizards represented in the album's by-committee structure is capable of wrenching him out of his usual morose rhythms. To be fair, none of them really try, playing to his basic talents while also coddling his laziest inclinations, swaddling songs in scintillating soundscapes that coat these sour centers in layers of sweetness.
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Nov 29, 2016There are more tracks to like than not, even stretching all the way to the end of the record. If you want Starboy to be a good album, it can be that. It may require some personal editing. It also may require that you ignore what even the most sterilized tracks seem to be about.
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Nov 28, 2016Despite an overlong hour-plus runtime and surplus of filler, Starboy does have highlights. ... But for longtime fans that believe the Weeknd is one of the major R&B artists of the decade, Starboy will ultimately seem like a disappointment.
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Nov 28, 2016At 18 tracks, Starboy delivers some pop gems, but its last third falters with a string of schmaltzy ballads eventually rescued by the Daft Punk-assisted closer, an enjoyable bit of retro lite-funk that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Random Access Memories.
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Nov 25, 2016There are things worth hearing on Starboy. It seems to capture an artist in a slightly awkward state of flux, unsure whether to cravenly embrace the kind of pop stardom that gets you on the shortlist for the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice awards or throw caution to the wind and do something more interesting artistically. Starboy hedges its bets and tries to do both. You can see why, but it makes for a curiously uneven album.
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Dec 5, 2016Unable to elicit more than a shrug for most of its runtime, the record is just one more passable pop album in a year that really didn’t need another.
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Nov 28, 2016It’s hard to overstate how aggravating it is to hear somebody who once stood as the dictionary definition of “less is more” fly so flagrantly in the face of the mantra that made him.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 614 out of 748
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Mixed: 91 out of 748
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Negative: 43 out of 748
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Nov 25, 2016
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Nov 25, 2016
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Nov 25, 2016