Sick!
| Earl Sweatshirt
Sick!
Sick! (stylized in all caps) is the fourth studio album by American rapper Earl Sweatshirt, it was released on January 14, 2022, through Tan Cressida and Warner Records. The album features collaborations with Armand Hammer and Zelooperz, along with additional vocals by Na-Kel Smith. Production was handled by the Alchemist, Black Noi$e, Navy Blue (under the alias Ancestors), Samiyam, Alexander Spit, Theravada, Rob Chambers, and some co-production by Earl himself. It was preceded by the singles "2010", "Tabula Rasa" featuring Armand Hammer, and "Titanic". -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Earl Sweatshirt used to make you sift through the mud to find the gold. On his latest album, the nuggets are gleaming right on the surface.
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The Guardian
A musically rich reset
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Rolling Stone
The groundbreaking MC continues to push himself on his most artistically rewarding album yet.
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Paste Magazine
This album is 24 minutes, but it gets the most out of those minutes that Earl ever has. It is brief, for sure, but it is packed with densely packaged rhymes and rewarding musical numbers that are majestic—“Lye” would not have sounded out of place on Prodigy’s Return of the Mac. Recently, Earl Sweatshirt became a father. True to form, that is not on the record. Earl keeps his kid as private as possible, besides some mention of fatherhood in interviews he has done. A lesser artist might have a song specifically about his son on this album, but Earl is too intuitive for that. Instead, what he does is show us the progression of life in an oil painting. From his grandfather to his father and now to Earl, the soul of man is complex and constantly changing from pain to peace. It makes sense that the kid who was once in Samoa would make an album about trying to move past the shadows and ghosts of his life, with concision but no oversharing.
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Stereogum
SICK! is a strange and insular rap record, but it’s a rap record nonetheless, and it’s a great one.
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Hip Hop Wired
SICK! is a brief affair but stirs the soul so effectively across its brief run time that the observations of hardship and lost time all lead to a high degree of self-realization at the end. The patience required to fully absorb Earl Sweatshirt’s latest opus rewards the listener with a roadmap to the mind of a genius at work who still has plenty to learn and share with a world typically hellbent on silencing expression from creative young minds.
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Uproxx
Even though he’s grown up, though, there remains an element of inscrutability in his music, a chip on his shoulder that has been reduced in size but is no less embedded in the fabric of his being. His rhymes still require “hard hat and ax pick” levels of exegesis, the title track nearly washes out his vocals in favor of an admittedly hard-hitting drum pattern, and you won’t be hearing many requests for Earl’s new music at any clubs or parties anytime soon (none you’d want to go to, anyway). But what feels more important is that Earl is in a good place, mentally and emotionally, and that’s translated to art that is proportionately more enjoyable.
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Slant Magazine
Sick! hops between sounds and moods while still sounding like an Earl Sweatshirt album.
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The Wall Street Journal
The artist’s latest album has a potent lyricism and a ‘first take’ aesthetic that suits the introspective nature of his rhyming.
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Passion of the Weiss
Sick! Is a rare work where new or altered interpretation can be discovered in each run through. A series of vivid murals painted in rapid succession; its author’s mysterious intent lurking just beneath. It’s the most fun album in Earl’s history, whether you’re poring over lyrics or just shouting them out, shaking your head in joyous appreciation.
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Clash Magazine
A fantastic release, ‘SICK!’ pushes Earl Sweatshirt into a new chapter of his work, while adding further context to what has come before. The production work is impeccable, its dizzying imaginative flurry the perfect hinge against Earl’s lyrical precision. Short but emphatically creative, it presents an entire universe to explore, with its finer details laying in wait for repeated listens. A bona fide left-field statement released on a major label, Earl’s singular position in rap music remains a source of inspiration.
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NME
Slugging through the thumping noise to carve some bliss from it all, the former Odd Future member has created the perfect soundtrack to our 'new normal'.
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Treblezine
Succinct but pleasing, long enough to be enjoyed while short enough to want more, this is the kind of album that loops on repeat late into the night. Past curfews, past bedtimes—those grown folks hours.
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Sputnik Music
In a way, it's not doing Sick! justice to analyse it through the prism of auteur theory when you know the consistent quality of the discography it's part of. Eh, that's the game: an artist releasing a first project of this caliber would be beyond hyped. Earl, on the other hand, will have to be content with a few polite applauses, far from the effervescence usually provoked by his albums. It's tough. But we are more demanding with those we love.
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The Line of Best Fit
Earl Sweatshirt’s latest project SICK! is an ode to his ever-growing craft.
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Magnetic Magazine
Earl Sweatshirt keeps things concise with 'SICK!' leaving the listener in that sweet spot of being satisfied, but also maybe wanting a little more.
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Commedia
Overall, “SICK!” is something truly special. It is hard to say when something so groundbreaking will be released again. Throwing any sort of formula out the window, Earl Sweatshirt proves that genuine creativity and imagination will always be more impactful to listeners as a whole.
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Whip
Earl Sweatshirt’s SICK! is a group therapy session for the countless amounts of people who have felt their growth stunted by symptoms of grief and complacency in this pandemic. Earl is trying to become a more mature man—one that can set a good example for his young child. In the end, everyone wants to get better, but sometimes one has to sink before they can reconcile with their own experiences.
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Hardwood and Hollywood
Literally, almost every track is insane on this album, and I cannot wait to see where Earl goes from here. This album is easily my album of the year so far, and it might even be my album of the decade so far. I cannot recommend this album enough, and if you’ve reached this point and HAVEN’T listened to it yet, please go do that right now. You will not regret it.
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No Ripcord
This is the most esoteric, thinking-person’s cloud rap album I’ve heard since Shabazz Palaces’ Black Up, and I mean that in the most endearing, complimentary way possible.
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Addicted to EDM
Earl Sweatshirt ruminates on life, not just looking at the past, but also the present, in its various forms, all around him. At 10 songs and around 25 minutes, he says what he needs to and bounces without overstaying his welcome. He packs a lot into that short period and leaves you in that sweet spot of being satisfied, but also maybe wanting a little more. That means you will just have to re-listen and discover something new with SICK!.
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Recommended Listen
The biggest revelation on SICK! besides where Earl’s head is at these days is in where he sees his art evolving going forward. Bringing up his inspos Armand Hammer on the smooth broken piano soul chain link-up “Tabula Rasa” or looking back at himself a decade-plus later on “2010″ through a clearer view production hears him moving away from the lo-fi inversions of yesterday. The shit outside may even more reason for him to stay inside, but instead, he’s finding ways to bring the bigger picture into his world.
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AllMusic
Sick! is brief, with just ten songs clocking in at around 24 minutes, but every move is placed with intention and forethought. Sharp, direct, and fluid in a way that's almost supernatural, Sick! perfectly conveys the duality of frustration and drive to persevere that arises from living through exceptionally difficult times.
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The Reflector
The album delivers exactly what we love him for — visionary lyrics and effortless delivery. After everything we’ve been through, these 24 minutes and five seconds feels like a positive word to our collective suffering and resilience throughout the past two years.
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Peanut Butter Pope
And for what it’s worth, the most interesting beat of the album belongs to ‘2010’; a tinge of pop, as synth riffs splutter through the high-end, and jamming beats exhale throughout. There’s nothing more out-there than poking one’s nose out of the abstract to tease something casual. The album itself retains the foggy credibility of much of Earl’s recent discography – need to think of a name for that genre…
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Top 5 Rap Website
Excellent; recommended to all fans of artist or genre.
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Focus Hip Hop
This album is good. It’s far from my favorite Earl project, but I think it’s his best work since 2015. The production is pretty good for the most part, and there’s not a wack verse on this album. There are a couple tracks that lack replay value for me, but even those tracks aren’t particularly bad. I definitely would prefer if the songs were longer and more fleshed out because some of these tracks felt kind of incomplete or half-assed. I don’t think there’s a single track where Earl spits more than one verse. However, for the most part, I’m satisfied with this release. Hopefully his next project is even better.
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Wrongmog
Rapper’s nonchalant verses, delivered over an alluring mesh of music, show off his unique charm.
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Beats Per Minute
The samples and beats he employs are toned down, jazzy and elemental. The palette shifts from the Kid A-like ethereal sounds of “God Laughs” to the bluesy strings of album closer “Fire in the Hole”, which gently sends his audience out on a makeshift raft in the middle of a calm sea. It’s gentle, but keeps you on the edge of your seat as you wait for its brittle frame to cave in. It never does, but that feeling is what Earl wants you to feel, because that’s how he’s lived his life.
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