Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch
Critic Score
Based on 25 reviews
2016 Ratings: #46 / 1004
Year End Rank: #21
User Score
Based on 372 ratings
2016 Rank: #195
Liked by 24 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Drowned in Sound

Hval’s always been a visceral storyteller, but now she really dips us into a new world, crimson-tinted and surreal, led by either her vampire self or her real artist self.

90
Loud and Quiet

Part of the beauty of what Hval does is the way her art takes you to a place you didn’t know existed, but in a way where you don’t notice the journey.

90
The Line of Best Fit

Jenny Hval remains one of the most powerful, honest and funny performers working in music today, and this dissection of her self and her work is fascinating to the point of obsession.

90
AllMusic

Sounds and concepts flow into each other as potently as blood itself on Blood Bitch, a bewitching album from an artist at the peak of her powers.

90
Tiny Mix Tapes

The themes run from menstruation to vampires to capitalism to loneliness to pap smears, and any thread you pick can take you to the core. You have been invited in.

88
Northern Transmissions

Blood Bitch is an ambitious and awesomely executed album from Hval, a landmark outing for the experimental artist. Borrowing a soul-baring line from closer “Lorna,” you’ve “never known pleasure like this.”

85
The 405

Blood Bitch sees Hval re-united with Lasse Marhaug, with the two sharing production duties. Marhaug, is arguably more in his element here with Hval embracing noise and drone more than she has on any previous record. It makes Blood Bitch an interesting step forward from previous record Apocalypse, girl.

83
Pitchfork
The Norwegian avant-gardist’s most atmospheric and filmic album draws on several traditions: vampire movies, the cross-hairs of art and pop, and the lineage of artwork made of menstrual blood.
83
Consequence of Sound

She experiments with darkness and various forms of liberation on the regular, particularly so in last year’s Apocalypse, girl, but Hval goes deeper on Blood Bitch while somehow staying lighter.

80
Exclaim!

Few tracks work on their own, but together they convey an urge to achieve order through art. Blood Bitch won't reward casual listeners, but it offers plenty to those who want to get a little lost.

80
The Irish Times

Hval's triumph is in cleverly transforming the (for some people) unsavoury aspects of such an intimate female bodily function into something acutely and collectively important.

80
Record Collector
It’s an absorbing mix of spooky comedown synthtronics, night-time traffic ambience, electro glitches and animals scratching at the door, over which Hval sings, whispers, talks and pants her feelings and philosophies.
80
The Observer

Interestingly, given the title and themes, Blood Bitch is less operatic than one might expect. 

80
Mojo
Hval's most rounded missive to date unsettles.
80
Uncut

Hval’s approach has always been equal parts instinctive, intellectual and whimsical, but Blood Bitch confirms her singular methodology is now at its most surgically precise and bold. In realising her uncontainable, bewildering ambitions, one might even suggest it represents Hval’s coming of age.

80
Slant Magazine
An intimate existential chronicle of imprisonment and liberation, its visceral, blood-smeared intensity works off a steady heartbeat of acute artistic ferment, the roiling passion underlying Hval's powerful declaration of self.
80
PopMatters

Blood Bitch is a record that doesn’t try to be anything. Whereas Apocalypse, Girl was contrived and Viscera was uneventful, this record is dreamy and memorable, both through its illusion of simplicity and its gentle invitation to listeners.

80
The Skinny

Hval’s most personal record, Blood Bitch is an understated but intriguing album by a perpetually fascinating artist.

80
Sputnikmusic

Despite controversial lyrics, unconventional song structures, and a lofty concept, Blood Bitch somehow fits like a defiant glove against all the odds.

80
DIY

Hval’s latest is a complex, disarming listen that delves into new, foundry-pushing territory with the enthusiasm of an overzealous Pokemon Go player exploring new corners of the neighbourhood.

80
Under the Radar

Blood Bitch is her latest attempt to marry up the pretty and the grotesque. An open exploration of menstruation, the record uses her ceramic intone to startling effect,

75
Spectrum Culture

Paradoxically both accessible and alienating, Blood Bitch remains willfully enigmatic and unshakably fascinating in its atmospheric abstraction.

70
Crack Magazine
It’s an amalgamation of past, present and future, and a dazzling realisation of self from one of the most thought-provoking songwriters working today.
70
musicOMH
At times, this is probably easier to admire than to actually sit down and enjoy, but it’s an impressive achievement nonetheless.
58
Pretty Much Amazing

Blood Bitch commits the ultimate crime of all so-called concept albums: there is undeniable effort in the subject and story it was supposed to tell, but little magic in the execution.

WhatTheFunk
NR

Never trust a new Jenny Hval album.

If there is one thing that the Norwegian continues to teach me continuously throughout her already long discography of 8 albums, it is that it is impossible to try to predict her next move. While her last album was dancing at the first listenings, with a strange concept to accompany it... it didn't fail. I barely had time to say "It's a good little album, very nice" when SNAP! Jenny had once again taken me by surprise, this time by deeply sticking ... read more

70

Nice

marsplutomusic
68

i still don’t know what soft dick rock is

70

Nice

ShoegazeJake
100

The real Vamp Anthem

marsplutomusic
68

i still don’t know what soft dick rock is

Purchasing Blood Bitch from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?


Added on: May 25, 2016