Critics give Homeland a B-Side Breakdown of 85 (B), from 10 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 70 to 100.
The verdict on Homeland
9 of 10 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 100 Los Angeles Times and musicOMH
- Lowest 70 Rolling Stone
- By the numbers The best-reviewed album of Laurie Anderson's career on B-Side Breakdowns, ahead of Mister Heartbreak (84). The eighth best-reviewed album of 2010 we've tracked.
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Times via Wikipediaby Margaret Wappler | 4/4 | 100 | 2010 | “This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links.” |
| musicOMH via Wikipediaby Darren Harvey | 5/5 | 100 | 2010 | “Laurie Anderson has always been equally at home with pop music and experimentalism, and Homeland offers us the most satisfying synthesis of those two” |
| PopMatters via Wikipediaby Ron Hart | 9/10 | 90 | 2010 | “Laurie Anderson’s Homeland originally started out as a “concert poem” that the legendary performance artist collaborated on with Lou Reed during her 2008” |
| Entertainment Weekly via Wikipediaby Melissa Maerz | B | 85 | 2010 | |
| Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Brian Howe | 8.3/10 | 83 | 2010 | “The Downtown NYC fixture's first album in a decade is an exquisite state-of-the-union dispatch from a darkly comic conscience.” |
| Uncut via Wikipedia | 4/5 | 80 | 2010 | |
| Slant via Wikipediaby Eric Henderson | 4/5 | 80 | 2010 | “Anderson’s songs have always undercut the typically patriarchal element of social and political clout.” |
| Drowned in Sound via Wikipediaby Sam Kinchin-Smith | 8/10 | 80 | 2010 | “Homeland’s biggest achievement is to sculpt a lot of minutes of material – both new tracks and ones she’s been playing live for years – into someth…” |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Thom Jurek | 4/5 | 80 | ||
| Rolling Stone via Wikipediaby Barry Walters | 3.5/5 | 70 | 2010 | “Check out our album review of Artist's Homeland on Rolling Stone.com.” |
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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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