Critics give I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead a B-Side Breakdown of 78 (C+), from 10 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 60 to 100.
The verdict on I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
6 of 10 critics liked it. A mixed reception.
- Highest 100 The Independent
- Lowest 60 Rolling Stone and The Guardian
- Career #3 of El-P's 3 albums with a Breakdown
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Independent via Wikipediaby Andy Gill | 5/5 | 100 | 2007 | |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby John Bush | 4.5/5 | 90 | ||
| Entertainment Weekly via Wikipediaby Michaelangelo Matos | B+ | 88 | 2007 | |
| The A.V. Club via Wikipediaby Andy Battaglia | B | 85 | 2007 | “El-P: I'll Sleep When You're Dead” |
| Uncut via Wikipedia | 4/5 | 80 | 2006 | |
| Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Sam Chennault | 8.0/10 | 80 | 2007 | “The long-awaited follow-up to 2002's Fantastic Damage is more textured and melodic than its predecessor, but El-P's production is still amongst the most jarring in hip-hop and here the Def…” |
| Spin via Wikipediaby Chris Ryan | 3.5/5 | 70 | 2007 | |
| NME via Wikipediaby Alex Miller | 7/10 | 70 | 2007 | “After the Pixies, the guy who trademarked soft-loud songwriting changed his name from Black Francis to Frank Black and began ploughing the lonely acoustic furrow of the soft-soft. Well, hold…” |
| Rolling Stone via Wikipediaby Christian Hoard | 3/5 | 60 | 2007 | |
| The Guardian via Wikipediaby Angus Batey | 3/5 | 60 | 2007 |
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I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead in El-P's catalog
More from El-P
← Earlier Fantastic Damage (2002)Later → Cancer 4 Cure (2012)
More Hip-Hop & Rap from around 2007
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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