Against All Logic - 2012 - 2017
Critic Score
Based on 8 reviews
2018 Ratings: #446 / 890
User Score
2018 Rank: #29
Liked by 186 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
The Needle Drop
Nicolas Jaar's full-length debut as Against All Logic is one of the funkiest, most entrancing, and most cutting-edge collections of house music ever produced.
88
Pitchfork
These are thrilling, racing tracks, but they're also familiar, both functionally—every hi-hat in its right place—and emotionally, with the kind of crests and ecstasies you might find on 1990s labels like Nu Groove and Cajual.
80
AllMusic
Over the course of the album's 11 tracks, nods are made to various phases in the development of electronic music. Early-'90s rave, egregiously detuned analog synth melodies à la the giddy experimentalism of Aphex Twin, disco edits, minimal house, and even moments of pre-techno influences are all touched upon as restless and colorful album washes by A.A.L., showing a different side of Jaar's range, but it's easily the most carefree and inviting of his work.
80
Clash
Those who are deeply inquisitive about music will have a field day on WhoSampled finding vocal stems from David Axelrod, The Delfonics and Kanye West. Those who aren’t interested in that will still find an album which has an instant impact as Jaar substitutes avant-garde dystopian techno with the most off kilter time signatures for something much more predictable.
80
Spectrum Culture

With Sirens Jaar combined the synth-punk of Suicide with political fury and Space is Only Noise is still a defining document for Microhouse, but goddamn it’s nice to hear him cut loose.

67
Pretty Much Amazing

It’s a different sort of project, sure, and the way it ping-pongs between pastiche and higher art is interesting. But so much of this music has been done better by other artists.

56
Resident Advisor

It paints an unflattering picture of the project as house and disco pastiche with only brief flashes of inspiration.

50
Crack Magazine
It is perhaps reflective of the high expectations we have of Nicolas Jaar that an album with no particularly bad tracks on it feels like a disappointment, but there's not much here that warrants repeat-listening.
BradTasteMusic
97

Nearly perfect

UltimateLifeFrm
90

Shoutout to @arsheeza; thanks for recommending this to me.

2012-2017 is the 3rd album from Chilean-American composer Nicolás Jaar, under the moniker Against All Logic, released in February 2018. As the title suggests, it consists of 11 tracks that were produced between 2012 and 2017.

It was critically acclaimed upon release, whilst being seen by some critics as more of a compilation than a genuine studio album, which I can say is a fair counter argument to some degree, but does the ... read more

exception
78

Across the board, I think everyone can agree that this is, for the most part, an inoffensive and enjoyable album. But I also think its fair to say that most of the people rating this so high have not listened to many albums in the same genre as this (myself included), leading us to get caught up in the hype of another popular album. Sure this is an awesome set of tracks, but if it wasn't from Jaar and if people's minds weren't clouded by Melon and Pitchfork, it'd probably be swept under the ... read more

Boydove
93

Everything on this album is so well done. Every little detail.

Nukeproofbear
98

Music for the spooky dancefloor.

AUD1OR1OT
83

Again, I have to agree with the score... Also another 83.

The producing skill Nicolas has shown makes it a great album. It's funky, groovy and ready for the club! Some songs (for example, Some Kind of Game) also feel like back then, like the 90's or 2000's.

Although, that's not my type of Deep House I prefer. The only songs I added to my Liked Songs on Spotify was the opener and Cityfade. The rest are still enjoyable.
The opener (This Old House is All I Have) starts of cinematic or ... read more

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Added on: February 17, 2018