- Record Label: Macklemore
- Release Date: Feb 26, 2016
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- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Mar 4, 2016The album isn’t necessarily a classic, or better than The Heist, but it does prove Macklemore is here to stay.
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Feb 25, 2016The bookends are tracks that aim to be masterworks and fall just one step short, but everything in between is delightful, stunning, or both, making the album's title less than one-tenth apt, and Macklemore & Lewis both emo under-promisers and Grammy-worthy over-deliverers.
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Mar 3, 2016The title harbors on his crash-landed placement in the mainstream where he simply wants to co-exist while the music, albeit a times disjointed, makes up one of the most self-aware, socially conscious rap albums in recent memory, if not ever.
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Mar 15, 2016Despite some lyrical flaws here and there, it still shines.
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Mar 3, 2016Four years later, with This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, he’s dropped the album that Kanye haters wanted Kanye to make.
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Feb 26, 2016While Macklemore wants to provoke thought, the album’s real strengths are its mindlessly amusing tracks.
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Feb 29, 2016It’s equal parts witty and serious, poppy and knotty, cracking wise one minute, then demanding you sit quietly and listen carefully through some complicated soul-searching.
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Feb 25, 2016"Make better music," he wills himself on "Bolo Tie." And sometimes he does, especially when the beats turn soulful and artists like Leon Bridges and Chance the Rapper swing by for assists. With the exception of the exuberant "Downtown," coming up with "Thrift Shop"-style catchiness is rarely the goal here.
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Feb 26, 2016It’s hard to think of a more apt title for this album than This Unruly Mess I’ve Made. Listeners can find everything that made Macklemore popular in the first place, mixed with everything that lead to the intense backlash against him two years ago.
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Feb 26, 2016This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is nowhere near as bad as its detractors would like it to be. It’s an occasionally inspiring, often corny rap album made for winning Grammy nominations and waking the hearts of the unwoken. The sum of this is sometimes appealing, though frustrating.
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Mar 24, 2016Though This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is decent, its biggest failing lies in its quality control. For every good song, there are two mediocre and/or forgettable ones next to them.
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Mar 18, 2016“Kevin” and “White Privilege II”, obvious attempts to spark political discourse, see an artist not afraid to speak his mind. It makes meme-chasing moments like “Brad Pitt’s Cousin” and “Dance-Off” all the more forgettable.
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Feb 25, 2016Well intentioned but frequently clumsy (“I want to be Hugh Jackman/ you know jacked, man”), the record demonstrates that the duo’s skills haven’t yet caught up to their ambition.
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Feb 29, 2016TUMIM shows a regression to the mean, further establishing him as an above-average emcee whose runaway hype train simply ran off the tracks.
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Feb 29, 2016Macklemore remains unsure of himself throughout, lacking the rapping skills and natural charisma needed to get things onto a surer footing. In the end, it’s a sadly fitting album title.
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Feb 25, 2016Admittedly, the pair also cover weightier topics--the co-opting of hip-hop, music industry machinations and parenting dilemmas--but it’s all against a backdrop of basicness that continues to grate.
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Mar 3, 2016Many of This Unruly Mess I’ve Made’s flaws could’ve very well been forgotten, or at least temporarily swept under the rug, had the actual music been good.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 87 out of 153
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Mixed: 32 out of 153
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Negative: 34 out of 153
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Feb 26, 2016
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Feb 26, 2016