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9.0
81309
9.0 |
Loud And Quiet
An energised call to arms and a celebration which is peppered with a wry, macabre sense of humour that tempers its statements and lends them a more considered weight
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9.0
81513
9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Bleeds is a concise and heavily focused record that can proudly sit in and amongst his best
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9.0
81555
9.0 |
musicOMH
A heart so firmly on his sleeve we can see it there, beating. It’s what makes him so important to British music today
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8.0
81566
8.0 |
State
There’s no song here that doesn’t feel like a master craftsman at work
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-
8.0
81657
8.0 |
The Quietus
In its own way Bleeds is a blues album, coloured by suffering and shared guilt
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-
8.0
81388
8.0 |
Evening Standard
Rapper Rodney Smith has lost none of his edge - despite a move to suburban Surrey - on his sixth album
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8.0
81406
8.0 |
NME
To borrow one of his old album titles, this is awfully deep
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8.0
81407
8.0 |
DIY
Bends and twists genres into more combinations than are possible on a Rubix cube
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-
8.0
81418
8.0 |
The Independent
As he observes in “Stepping Hard”, it’s all about perseverance and endurance, about trying to be a mountain in a molehill culture
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8.0
81310
8.0 |
The Skinny
Bleeds is the shortest, but arguably most eclectic and intense Roots Manuva album to date
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8.0
81311
8.0 |
Mojo
The always-healthy flow of Rodney Smith’s musical and lyrical ideas has never pumped in quite such vivid crimson as it does on Bleeds. Print edition only
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8.0
81312
8.0 |
Q
A powerful and unique voice back on top form. Print edition only
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8.0
81319
8.0 |
Clash
With ‘Bleeds’, he manages to avoid being defined while maintaining his distinctiveness. It’s a classic Roots manoeuvre
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8.0
81335
8.0 |
Exclaim
A dense, dark, demanding listen. But patient, socially conscious audiences will not only find it compelling, but galvanizing too
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8.0
81337
8.0 |
Uncut
Like 2008's Slime & Reason, Bleeds can come on a bit like an episode of "Grumpy Old MCs." But there's always room for salvation in Smith's world. Print edition only
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8.0
81378
8.0 |
The Irish Times
Bleeds is another step on from 2011’s 4everevolution, with Smith taking stock of the world around him from a veteran’s perch in suburbia
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8.0
81306
8.0 |
The Music
There are elements of light scattered throughout the primarily dark record
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8.0
81307
8.0 |
The FT
Bleeds finds him in formidable form, delivering densely packed verses over inventive layers of production
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8.0
81308
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
This is a disc with gut-punchingly real expression shot through it
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8.0
81767
8.0 |
Gig Soup
With ten tracks in forty minutes, 'Bleeds' benefits from being one of the shortest and most focussed efforts of Smith's stellar career
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8.0
82173
8.0 |
NOW
One of his most dynamic, intimate and humble artistic efforts, revealing more with every listen
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8.0
82581
8.0 |
Resident Advisor
Bleeds is a jagged journey with purposeful peaks and troughs
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7.0
82255
7.0 |
PopMatters
Roots Manuva proves that he stands high above the game on the fantastic Bleeds
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6.0
81382
6.0 |
The Guardian
The best songs paint him as guardian of the apocalypse, pairing his world-weary soulfulness with murky, mutant beats
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6.0
81455
6.0 |
The Observer
Bleeds opens with a tirade against the free market labels pretty much everybody as bastards
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6.0
81759
6.0 |
Beardfood
A barren intellectual wasteland populated by tortured minds and over-informed souls
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