- Record Label: New West
- Release Date: Feb 6, 2007
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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This is the least polished and crafted recording of Rickie Lee Jones' career, and it stands alone in her catalog. It's a ragged kid in ripped blue jeans singing her heart out to you without drama or falsity. How can it be anything less than a masterpiece?
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Some of this music is oddly affecting; much of it is merely odd.
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With every repeat spin, Sermon reveals new truths, divine grooves, and exquisite inspiration.
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BillboardIt's a concept so heady and engrossing that it can obscure the fact that "Sermon" also rocks in a way Jones never has before. [17 Feb 2007]
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The overall hush of "Sermon" occasionally leads down some sleepy roads. But with a real sense of creative spark at its heart, "Sermon" is a worthy entry into the Book of Rickie Lee.
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Entertainment WeeklySermon is not quite as transcendent as some of her earlier work, but it's still vintage Rickie. [9 Feb 2007, p.75]
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Ambitious and sprawling, a mud-caked journey to transcendence.
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MojoWhat if Lou Reed and Moe Tucker joined forces with the Danielson Family? [Mar 2007, p.104]
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Otherworldly.
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There are only two or three songs here that seem like they deserve company with Jones’s better work.
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Q MagazineAnyone expecting a lot of happy-clappy Bible-thumping best rethink. [Mar 2007, p.112]
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You want back-to-basics? This is it.
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UncutFor all its weird dissonance, Sermon...'s musical crudeness gives it a powerful immediacy. Strangely accessible and highly addictive, it's her best work in three decades. [Mar 2007, p.98]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 15
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Mixed: 0 out of 15
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Negative: 3 out of 15
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Feb 2, 2019
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HeleneGJul 16, 2009Raw, honest. Jones stripped, lyrics and music. LOVE IT.
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GeneSMar 11, 2009