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25 November 2024

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

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New

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"Unequivocally stunning" (10/10 -The Arts Desk). "Striking a compelling balance between the epic and the intimate" (9/10 - DIY). "One of his finest albums" (9/10 - musicOMH)

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"Potentially one of the year’s best records" (10/10 - DIY). "A must-listen for anyone who’s ever been in the type of love that doesn’t always get a light shone on it" (9/10 - Northern Transmissions)

Ezra CollectiveDance, No One's Watching

"This is truly a fresh musical experience, rather than being just another jazz record" (9/10 - Far Out). "A joyful reminder of music’s ability to bring people together, to move us, and to make us dance" (8/10 - Clash)

Jamie xxIn Waves

"Blistering return from dance’s master craftsman" (10/10 - The irish Times). "Jamie xx has delivered a masterpiece that will linger long after the last beat fades" (9/10 - Clash)

Floating PointsCascade

"Cherish it while you can, before he sets off on a completely different tangent once more" (8/10 - Far Out). "Easily the most successful work he's made as a dance producer" (8/10 - All Music)

MJ LendermanManning Fireworks

"A collection of caricatures ballooned by empathy, bruised egos, and lovable self-destruction" (9.2/10 - Paste). "It's the release he's been waiting for since the first utterances of the album" (9/10 - Exclaim)

Slow Focus

Fuck Buttons

Slow Focus

Third album from the UK experimental electronic duo John Power and Andrew Hung and follow up to the highly acclaimed Tarot Sport

ADM rating[?]: 7.8
Label: ATP
UK Release date: 22/07/2013
US Release date: 23/07/2013

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Sort by most recent review

10.0 56875
10.0 | The Irish Times

Surely one of the records of the year
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9.1 57041
9.1 | Pretty Much Amazing

This is not a happy album. And while not all listeners will find solace in its depressive tones, it is difficult to not appreciate its expansive sound palette and unflinching creativity
Read Review
9.0 56971
9.0 | PopMatters

Make no mistake: its left-field heritage notwithstanding, Fuck Buttons’ latest is 2013’s most unexpectedly danceable long-player
Read Review
9.0 57095
9.0 | Entertainment.ie

2013 has been a year of quality album releases, but you will not hear a more thrilling, exciting record than Slow Focus. Prepare to be blown away.
Read Review
9.0 56930
9.0 | musicOMH

Slow Focus is unmistakably Fuck Buttons, the logical continuation of the music produced by a duo who never strive to do something expected
Read Review
8.8 57599
8.8 | Beats Per Minute

Slow Focus immerses the listener in an aural landscape that offers so much to explore
Read Review
8.7 56932
8.7 | Pitchfork

Power and Hung have made either the year's most introverted party album or the most expansive loner's album; either way, there are few albums this year that offer this much space to get lost in
Read Review
8.5 56737
8.5 | The 405

Their latest opus is far from the triumphant feel of their previous work, but it sounds like a triumph in plenty of other ways
Read Review
8.5 57142
8.5 | The Quietus

Underpinning the whole package are those drum patterns - big, beefy, room-shaking things that would mark Fuck Buttons as dance music producers to watch out for, if only their music weren’t quite so unfriendly
Read Review
8.3 56973
8.3 | A.V. Club

Some of the primal charm of the band’s early days is gone, but replacing it with the slow-burning, masterfully orchestrated catharsis here leaves little room for complaint
Read Review
8.0 56979
8.0 | Spin

As clever as Fuck Buttons are at cobbling together unlikely juxtapositions, they're master builders when it comes to tension and release
Read Review
8.0 56982
8.0 | Loud And Quiet

The sound of Fuck Buttons hopping from one alien terrain to the next
Read Review
8.0 57045
8.0 | Fact

A towering achievement
Read Review
8.0 57076
8.0 | The Fly

A fearsome, mind-bending collection
Read Review
8.0 56943
8.0 | Consequence Of Sound

All told, this is pretty epic stuff
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8.0 56945
8.0 | DIY

There is crystalline beauty on offer here as well as thunking great passages of dirty, nasty noise and it is this rise and fall which makes it a) so compelling and b) best listened to in one go, all the way through, with no breaks
Read Review
8.0 56950
8.0 | All Music

Slow Focus delivers some of their most masterful and seemingly effortless music yet
Read Review
8.0 57244
8.0 | God Is In The TV

With barely a track under ten minutes, and not a vocal in earshot, Slow Focus maintains and embellishes Fuck Buttons’ integrity thoroughly, and with intent
Read Review
8.0 57403
8.0 | No Ripcord

Their most brilliant event yet
Read Review
8.0 56738
8.0 | Time Out

Something may have darkened their Olympic spirit, but that hasn’t stopped Fuck Buttons from making their best album yet
Read Review
8.0 56739
8.0 | Clash

Technical elements might share similarities with previous work, but the sentiments expressed are of a distinctly darker design
Read Review
8.0 56740
8.0 | Uncut

Its compact, often menacing strangeness has its own beauty. Print edition only
8.0 56742
8.0 | Q

Exemplifies electronic music at its best. Print edition only
8.0 56808
8.0 | NME

It is all-consuming and consistently impressive from the off
Read Review
8.0 56873
8.0 | The Guardian

The only real response is to listen and gawp
Read Review
8.0 56736
8.0 | The Skinny

Though it’s cut from a similar cloth to its predecessor, the electro-noise duo’s third album is somewhat rougher in texture and darker in tone
Read Review
8.0 56928
8.0 | Drowned In Sound

Slow Focus isn’t alienating, it’s other, and it’s a pleasure to take a wander around its unfamiliar landscapes
Read Review
8.0 56915
8.0 | Independent on Sunday

You can wait around in vain for something to happen, but it never does: there's no progression or narrative, it's immersive rather than engrossing. Slow Focus is an album to steep yourself in
Read Review
8.0 58120
8.0 | Slant Magazine

Fuck Buttons continue to toy with notions of what an album should be, a natural progression for a band whose only defining quality is their refusal to settle on a definitive sound
Read Review
7.8 58048
7.8 | AltSounds

Could be one of the albums of the year so far
Read Review
7.1 57008
7.1 | Paste Magazine

Slow Focus has all the rousing fanfare, build-and-release, PLUR values of standard raves, except the tracks are five minutes longer and the amount of human touch is in question
Read Review
6.5 56939
6.5 | Under The Radar

Exactly what you'd expect from a Fuck Buttons effort: it's brusque, overwhelming and complicated. But for a band so intent on pushing boundaries, this is a strange, almost faltering, sidestep
Read Review
6.0 57293
6.0 | State

Slow Focus reveals itself to be a rewarding listen – one that treats epic as a starting point and can only hope to maintain its sense of wonder while maintaining scope with ease
Read Review
6.0 56925
6.0 | The Observer

Their third album is denser, more heavyweight and grandiose than their previous offerings
Read Review
6.0 56895
6.0 | Evening Standard

The hip hop feel of The Red Wing offers a rare lighter touch — otherwise it’s heavy going
Read Review
6.0 56935
6.0 | The Line Of Best Fit

The same sensory overload, the blasts of noise juxtaposed with shifting dynamics, the sense that eventually elements would emerge, glistening and shimmering from their beds of sound that would make sense of everything. But then, well, those elements just don’t seem to arrive
Read Review
6.0 56793
6.0 | The Arts Desk

This is a Hollywood apocalypse, and extremely enjoyable as such, but the tension between its thrill-ride structures and the darker, less human areas it reaches towards can be frustrating
Read Review
6.0 56741
6.0 | Mojo

Slow Focus isn't without merit - Hidden XS is a screeching, twisting aural battering ram - but you yearn for more. Print edition only
6.0 59549
6.0 | Rolling Stone

The duo brings more art to blockbusters than most of rap and Hollywood
Read Review
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Fuck Buttons: Slow Focus

Download full album for just £6.93
1. Brainfreeze £0.99
2. Year of the Dog £0.99
3. The Red Wing £0.99
4. Sentients £0.99
5. Prince's Prize £0.99
6. Stalker £0.99
7. Hidden Xs £0.99

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