Abolition of the Royal Familia

The Orb – Abolition of the Royal Familia: B-Side Breakdown 72 (C-) from 8 critic reviews.

Album cover for Abolition of the Royal Familia by The Orb
Released March 27, 2020
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The Orb

Abolition of the Royal Familia

72
B-Side BreakdownGrade C- · 8 critics · 50% approval
B-Side Breakdown72Grade: C-
Approval50%4 of 8 critics scored it 75 or higher
DivisivenessBroad agreementHow close the scores are: most critics land within 16 points of each other

Critics give Abolition of the Royal Familia a B-Side Breakdown of 72 (C-), from 8 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 60 to 80.

The verdict on Abolition of the Royal Familia

4 of 8 critics liked it. A mixed reception.

020406080100Uncut: 60AllMusic: 60Paste: 68Pitchfork: 69XS Noize: 80Q: 80Mojo: 80musicOMH: 80 Breakdown 72
The gist
XS Noize via Wikipediaby Ben P Scott 8/10 80 2020 “32 years after its formation, The Orb follows the genre-hopping 2018 treasure No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds with this equally cerebral new LP. Abolition Of The Royal Familia is…”
Q via Wikipedia 4/5 80 2019
Mojo via Wikipedia 4/5 80 2019
musicOMH via Wikipediaby Ben Devlin 4/5 80 2020 “Alex Paterson and his merry band are back with a new record, this time with a vaguely colonial theme. The album is ostensibly about the British royal”
Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Ben Cardew 6.9/10 69 2020 “Alex Paterson and his band of merry pranksters pay tribute to the golden age of ambient house with subtlety, occasional silliness, and a slyly subversive edge.”
Paste via Wikipediaby Robert Ham 6.8/10 68 2020 “Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover your favorite albums and films.”
Uncut via Wikipedia 3/5 60 2019
AllMusic via Wikipediaby Andy Kellman 3/5 60 2020

Abolition of the Royal Familia in The Orb's catalog

75The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (1991): 83U.F.Orb (1992): 88Orbus Terrarum (1995): 80Orblivion (1997): 78Cydonia (1999): 54Bicycles & Tricycles (2003): 58The Dream (2007): 67The Orbserver in the Star House (2012): 65More Tales from the Orbservatory (2013): 60Moonbuilding 2703 AD (2015): 75COW / Chill Out, World! (2016): 76No Sounds Are Out of Bounds (2018): 75Abolition of the Royal Familia (2020): 7272This onePrism (2023): 69Buddhist Hipsters (2025): 7519912025
The Orb's albums by B-Side Breakdown, in release order. Above the dashed line, most critics liked it. Every The Orb album, ranked

How these critics usually treat The Orb

  • AllMusic Harsher than usual14 points below the other critics here. Usually 5 points above on The Orb's other albums (13).
  • Mojo Kinder than usual9 points above the other critics here. Usually 7 points below on The Orb's other albums (4).
  • Uncut Harsher than usual14 points below the other critics here. Usually 5 points below on The Orb's other albums (6).
  • musicOMH Kinder than usual9 points above the other critics here. Usually 1 point above on The Orb's other albums (5).
  • Q About usual for them9 points above the other critics here. Usually 8 points above on The Orb's other albums (3).
  • Pitchfork About usual for them4 points below the other critics here. Usually 3 points below on The Orb's other albums (7).

More from The Orb

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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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