Metascore
64

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. Naysayers may argue that none of the tracks needs to be as long as they are (at 16 minutes and two seconds, We Dream Free is the shortest) but sounds as subtle as these need room to spread out just as a fine wine needs room to breathe.
  2. It is as if both musicians have tapped into a single communal memory of music, discovering it as they play with each flurry of notes and rhythms.
  3. Uncut
    80
    The stumbling spontaneity is refreshing. [Jul 2006, p.95]
  4. Urb
    80
    As strong as volume one, Hebden and Reid's finale to their improvised sessions is worthy of an encore. [Jul/Aug 2006, p.124]
  5. The work would not have been out of place on a more skeletal version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
  6. These are talented musicians-- and Vol. 2 is superior to the first disc-- but that development hardly merits owning two full albums of indifferent collaboration.
  7. The Exchange Session’s second volume retreads the same path that Hebden and Reid took earlier, but they truly go places this time around.
  8. Free jazz fiends and fans of the first volume will find plenty to love here.
  9. There are few compelling reasons to listen to The Exchange Session Vol. 2 more than once.
  10. Under The Radar
    50
    At its best, the albumit does achieve an interesting hybrid of jazz and electronic music. At its worst, it’s simply boring. [#14]
  11. Neither of them could truly be called “free” players - most of their own music is fairly composed - and it sometimes seems like they don’t really know what they’re doing with each other.
  12. Q Magazine
    40
    One album might have served better than two. [Jun 2006, p.116]
  13. The Wire
    30
    [By "We Dream Free"] it all starts to loosen up and swing a bit more. But even here it ends up treading water. [#269, p.42]

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