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The Practice of Love Image
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 17 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

  • Summary: The seventh full-length release for the Norwegian avant-garde artist features guest appearances from Félicia Atkinson, Laura Jean and Vivian Wang.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 17
  2. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Sep 24, 2019
    90
    After so many records, a debut novel and another book on the way, it's a privilege to be invited into Hval's private mental space. Like picking up a conversation with a much wiser friend, each new album compacts her advancing thought into a kind of guidebook for those who aren't quite so mentally together, all her latest learnings folded in. ... Obviously, Hval is anything but ordinary.
  2. Sep 13, 2019
    85
    Jenny Hval has never come closer to a universal truth. If she’s often felt to have been speaking from on high, Hval has never been more purely human than on The Practice of Love.
  3. Mojo
    Sep 12, 2019
    80
    Hval deals in big cerebral questions, but these songs--intimate, intricately fleshed out--have roots in both body and mind. [Oct 2019, p.86]
  4. 80
    There’s an interior dialogue throughout, which is sometimes more intriguing than musically engrossing. ... But there is transcendental beauty here to get lost in.
  5. Sep 13, 2019
    80
    It may be her subtlest, most approachable album yet; though its ideas are just as complex and provocative as those of Blood Bitch or Apocalypse, Girl, there's something welcoming about it that engages the hearts and minds of her listeners fully.
  6. Oct 31, 2019
    80
    The Practice of Love is short, but not if you repeat it three times. It becomes superhuman, a passage into Hval's brain. It gives off energy while telling a story of how honesty sucks blood from love.
  7. Sep 16, 2019
    60
    The smoothness of Hval’s musical vehicle, this time around, allows her ideas to slip in softly, almost subliminally: humanity as a virus, technology’s role in romance, bereavement, panic attacks. It’s an eerie sort of euphoria, but no less of a rush for it.

See all 17 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Sep 21, 2019
    10
    This is a bit different to her previous record but ai like it and that is my review
  2. Nov 29, 2021
    7
    deals in big cerebral questions, but these songs--intimate, intricately fleshed out--have roots in both body and mind
  3. Sep 13, 2019
    7
    It's an interstellar record hitting, of course, bigger audiences. A brave step from the beloved Norwegian Jenny Hval. Well done! :)
  4. Oct 5, 2019
    6
    On her 7th studio album, this conceptual artist from Oslo, Norway continues down the path of eclectic, experimental electronic music. HerOn her 7th studio album, this conceptual artist from Oslo, Norway continues down the path of eclectic, experimental electronic music. Her lyrics often arise from a philosophical feminist perspective on sexuality, relationships and life dichotomies. Musically, she exudes a sense of mystery with floating synthesizers, electronic pop sounds and existential poetry. Hval is a member of the band Rockettothesky. “The Practice Of Love”, like all Jenny Hval albums, is not made for everyone—but, if you find yourself on a compatible wavelength, you will be ecstatically immersed. Expand