Barragán

Blonde Redhead – Barragán: B-Side Breakdown 68 (D+) from 10 critic reviews.

Album cover for Barragán by Blonde Redhead
Released August 14, 2014
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Blonde Redhead

Barragán

68
B-Side BreakdownGrade D+ · 10 critics · 50% approval
B-Side Breakdown68Grade: D+
Approval50%5 of 10 critics scored it 75 or higher
DivisivenessDividedHow close the scores are: most critics land within 30 points of each other

Critics give Barragán a B-Side Breakdown of 68 (D+), from 10 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 40 to 80.

The verdict on Barragán

Critics split on this one: scores run from 40 (PopMatters) to 80 (Q and 3 others).

020406080100PopMatters: 40Pitchfork: 43Alternative Press: 60Uncut: 70Rolling Stone: 70The A.V. Club: 78Q: 80NME: 80Exclaim!: 80AllMusic: 80 Breakdown 68
The gist
Q via Wikipediaby Victoria Segal 4/5 80 2014
NME via Wikipediaby Al Horner 8/10 80 2014
Exclaim! via Wikipediaby Cam Lindsay 8/10 80 2014
AllMusic via Wikipediaby Heather Phares 4/5 80
The A.V. Club via Wikipediaby Josh Terry C+ 78 2014 “Blonde Redhead’s quiet, listless reinvention on Barragán”
Uncut via Wikipedia 7/10 70 2014
Rolling Stone via Wikipediaby Jessica Machado 3.5/5 70 2014 “Check out our album review of Artist's Barragán on Rolling Stone.com.”
Alternative Press via Wikipedia 3/5 60 2014
Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Jason Heller 4.3/10 43 2014 “Blonde Redhead's first album in four years finds the NYC avant-rock veterans following down the same path they started on with 2010's Penny Sparkle. Calling Barragán halfhearted would be giving…”
PopMatters via Wikipediaby Zachary Houle 4/10 40 2014 “Oh how the mighty have fallen. Blonde Redhead is best known for their dream pop masterwork, 2007’s 23, but followed up that album with 2010’s Penny Sparkle, a”

Barragán in Blonde Redhead's catalog

75Blonde Redhead (1995): 6767In an Expression of the Inexpressible (1998): 7373Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons (2000): 7474Misery Is a Butterfly (2004): 777723 (2007): 7575Barragán (2014): 6868This oneSit Down for Dinner (2023): 777719952023
Blonde Redhead's albums by B-Side Breakdown, in release order. Above the dashed line, most critics liked it. Every Blonde Redhead album, ranked

How these critics usually treat Blonde Redhead

  • Q Kinder than usual13 points above the other critics here. Usually 26 points below on Blonde Redhead's other albums (3).
  • Pitchfork Harsher than usual28 points below the other critics here. Usually 5 points below on Blonde Redhead's other albums (5).
  • Uncut About usual for them2 points above the other critics here. Usually 10 points above on Blonde Redhead's other albums (3).
  • AllMusic About usual for them13 points above the other critics here. Usually 7 points above on Blonde Redhead's other albums (6).

More from Blonde Redhead

See all Blonde Redhead albums ranked

More Indie & Alternative from around 2014

Would you spin it again?

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How the Breakdown works

Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59, a B+ is 88) and averaged. Grades follow the B-Side scale: A is 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 75 or higher; the Breakdown shows green at 75 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.

A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.

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