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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Observer

Lu seems intent to immerse us fully, deeply, intimately into her gossamer creative vision – and she succeeds. An astonishing first album.

90
Exclaim!

Kelsey Lu's Blood, pumping with movement and what moves us, we tiny wholes, maybe isn't a continent so much as it is a bordered body, graceful in its clunky fullness, jostling with every pothole, the cello its longing pores come to life.

85
The 405

The world Blood inhabits is intricately complex, drifting between well-earned confidence and unassuaged guilt and dread. It’s by turns soothing and existentially crushing.

80
Clash

Kelsey Lu’s ‘Blood’ is an album voracious in appetite and ideas. Its scope is broad, its palate lush and brimming with vibrant colour.

80
The Guardian

Blood is an enticingly restrained debut, showing a consistency of tone without compromising on Lu’s inventiveness.

80
Crack Magazine

Lu’s confessional outlook and openness to genre-blending aligns Blood with the fluidity of the digital era. But there’s also a classic quality to what she is doing.

75
Pitchfork

Above all, there is a sense of abundance, of florality; plush orchestrations rush into the spaces where her EP once shunned other instrumentation, preferring instead to let her cello reverberate with sharp-eyed reticence.

70
Loud and Quiet

It’s this forward-forging spirit that knits her diverse debut collection together. And yet you get the sense she’s still only scratched the surface, stylistically.

70
Highsnobiety

To get lost in Lu’s timeless, graceful, swooning soul is heavenly exaltation.

60
NME

The alt-classical talent has crafted an evocative, featured-packed debut album that, though uneven, commands you listen up and pay attention.

BuffaloStaple
80

love that bit where she goes ".........JUMP!!!!!!

intoooo the atlantic"

on the song 'Atlantic', proper bangin

musicmagpie55
70

While not the slam dunk I was hoping for, Kelsey Lu is a voice in pop music to watch. My slight issue with the album is that there are some truly sublime moments that outshine and diminish rest of the songs. 'Why Knock For You,' 'Foreign Car,' and 'Poor Fake' capture Lu's potential in a strong triple punch. These songs are continually shifting, never settling into a single rhythm or emotional state. Lu likes to draw out her vowels and really stretches her word into languid phrases that ... read more

usedtobe
86

Defies expectations with its unpredictable instrumental flourishes and vivid imagery. Marks the arrival of an inventive artist beyond our midst.

sumaya07
NR

this album is nature's water

bobbyhabnay
80

2019 is really that year

cstuart
80

i miss her

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Track List

1Rebel
3:44
88
2Pushin Against the Wind
3:43
88
3Due West
4:11
90
4KINDRED I
1:44
87
5Why Knock For You
4:00
90
6Foreign Car
3:17
88
7Poor Fake
4:41
93
8Too Much
2:17
86
9I'm Not In Love
6:54
97
10KINDRED II
0:44
85
11Atlantic
3:13
88
12Down2ridE
2:56
82
13Blood
3:25
86
Total Length: 44 minutes

Year End Lists

#13/Dazed
#36/Noisey
#41/BrooklynVegan
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Added on: March 20, 2019