MAGDALENE

I keep trying to find something wrong with this album and I genuinely can't. The melodies are gorgeous, the arrangements are inventive, the lyrics are thoughtful without being pretentious. It just fires on every cylinder from start to finish.

I wanted this to be better than it is. The ingredients are all there — the talent, the ambition, the production budget — but it never quite gels into something greater than the sum of its parts. Still a pleasant enough listen though.

I wanted this to be better than it is. The ingredients are all there — the talent, the ambition, the production budget — but it never quite gels into something greater than the sum of its parts. Still a pleasant enough listen though.

This is fine but I expected more given the critical consensus.

This is fine but I expected more given the critical consensus.

Middle of the road for this artist. Not bad by any means but not essential.

The arrangements here are stunning. You can tell real care went into every detail.

Not sure what happened here. Their previous work was so strong and this feels like a significant step backward. The songwriting is lazy, the production is overwrought, and the whole thing feels phoned in. A couple of decent tracks don't save it.

This took a while to grow on me. My first impression was honestly lukewarm — it seemed solid but not special. But something kept pulling me back, and around the fourth or fifth listen, the whole thing suddenly opened up. What I'd initially dismissed as simplicity revealed itself as remarkable economy. Every note is exactly where it needs to be. Now I consider it one of the better albums in my collection. The emotional arc is beautifully constructed, building from understated opening tracks to a genuinely powerful climax. A couple of tracks in the middle still feel slightly underdeveloped, but the overall experience is deeply rewarding.

The kind of album where you sit in silence after it ends.