Sign In to rate and review
Critic Reviews
100
‘Xen’ is decidedly playful, its alien sound palette used to conjure surreal songs that are melodramatic and nursery rhyme-like.
5y
91
Her time alongside Gesaffelstein added to her understanding of the space between beats, and the emotive power of these hesitations.
11y
90
Fans of his hip-hop and R&B work will certainly be challenged by the sparse and experimental nature of Xen, which makes it one of the most satisfying listens of the year.
11y
85
Xen is more than a confident debut, it’s the public reveal of a personality that the openly homosexual beatsmith had previously reserved for only his closest friends.
6y
85
Not many records can worm their way into your mind so successfully – this is abyssal electronica with a tormented bent and visions of nowt but pitch black pits of despair.
11y
84
Taken as a whole, it is an album about unstable unities, things that cannot easily hold together, wholes breaking to pieces and being put back together again in new and unfamiliar shapes.
11y
80
It’s one of those albums that elegantly restates the appeal of digital music, expressing hues and states of being that fall outside the analogue spectrum.
8y
80
What she's given listeners may be imperfect, but it's also freakishly musical, completely synthetic, and utterly human.
10y
80
Moments of softness and even warmth make Ghersi’s debut album a more varied, mature and easier listen than last year’s unforgiving &&&&& mixtape.
10y
80
It's a stunning showcase of her emotional, slippery, psychologically fraught production style.
Print Only
3y
80
A captivating, at times unexplainable reaching of pained highs and battered lows.
11y
80
The album is a slow starter, however once immersed there's no point of return, with the title track exploding before your ears, while the world of Slit Thru carves a scene where drowning and dancing are one and the same.
11y
80
Everything's in flux, subject to change, but Xen is still a record of mood-altering substance.
Print Only
3y
80
Contorting his sounds into discordant beauty and cacophony, Arca’s ‘Xen’ is full of gorgeously haunting contradictions. Intent on terrifying one second and cushioning with spectral beds of sound the next, it’s a record that’s hard to keep up with.
11y
80
On his debut album, Ghersi creates a maximalist canvas where lines are crossed, edges meander, and nothing seems to join up. Yet the magic of this method is that even the most fractured, dislodged and bruised of sounds ... are tightly charted.
5y
80
The way Arca plays with and decorates time, letting sounds and moods mutate spontaneously, makes Xen a complete picture of his artistry and also promises much more.
11y
80
This is uncompromising stuff, with little holding back, and the end effect is one that wears not just its heart, but its soul, on its sleeve.
11y
70
It’s a gracefully self-contained ecology — a sonic environment rich with empty and warm spaces, within which the listener is urged to breathe more easily and share in a queer feeling of belonging.
11y
70
An album that's never quite what you want it to be, nor for that matter is it any one thing for more than a few minutes.
11y
60
Arca's latest record is certainly abstract, but not quite as genre-bending and trend-setting as the music she's been releasing for the past two years.
8y
60
This is uneasy listening with little in the way of recognisable groove or plotting.
Print Only
3y
60
What sets these tracks apart from any trend, current or foreseeable, is their emotional punch. Arca has built a robotic, alien world strengthened by its beating heart.
11y
60
Even if her chops as a producer aren’t in question, the writing on Xen is too patchy to fully realise Ghersi’s ambitions. Still, it’s hardly lacking in ideas.
11y
apparently i must hear this
dark and sometimes ambient, electronic and glitchy and very interesting & enjoyable album
found this album through peggy gou
This wasn't the album I expected, though, given the genres, I could have expected anything. Does it appeal to me? That's the real question. It's different from previous albums I've listened to, and they focus heavily on the atmosphere they build with each track. It's certainly very well-executed. There wasn't a single song that made me go, "OMG, that thing was great," but that was missing. I approached it loosely, without the pressure of thinking it would ... read more
![YAYAYI - [][][][][][][][][][][][][[][][][][][][[][[[][]][[][][][][]][]][][][][][]][][]][][][][][][][][]][]][][][]. PART666% Yayayayay Original Is 666% of This. Read Me U Lazyfuck U Pig Fuck. Bitchfuck Me. Pornstarsdonehate. Amateurporngodnevacummingsoon윌셔룸쌀롱](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/200x0/album/170886-666.jpg)
Contributions By
patton, royalflush, thisisabtlgrnd, philthy, JediMark, erik, d_ism, OPENblinds, bgod, mxdrxw, hARded2000Become a Subscriber
Subscriber badge, no ads + more benefits.
Subscriber badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement
Track List
| 1 | Now You Know 3:58 | 85 |
| 2 | Held Apart 1:20 | 79 |
| 3 | Xen 3:18 | 86 |
| 4 | Sad Bitch 1:55 | 82 |
| 5 | Sisters 2:21 | 82 |
| 6 | Slit Thru 2:12 | 80 |
| 7 | Failed 3:40 | 78 |
| 8 | Family Violence 2:13 | 78 |
| 9 | Thievery 2:33 | 86 |
| 10 | Lonely Thugg 2:56 | 82 |
| 11 | Fish 2:07 | 80 |
| 12 | Wound 2:09 | 83 |
| 13 | Bullet Chained 2:51 | 88 |
| 14 | Tongue 2:59 | 71 |
| 15 | Promise 2:52 | 78 |
Total Length: 39 minutes
Year End Lists
| #2 | / | Dazed |
| #4 | / | CMJ |
| #8 | / | Flavorwire |
| #10 | / | Bleep |
| #10 | / | Dummy |
| #18 | / | Pitchfork |
| #20 | / | Tiny Mix Tapes |
| #26 | / | Rough Trade |
| #33 | / | Wondering Sound |
| #35 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #43 | / | Complex |
More Lists
Sign in to comment
