Dead
Studio album by
Young Fathers
Released31 January 2014 (2014-01-31)
Genre
Length34:48
Label
Young Fathers chronology
Tape Two
(2013)		 Dead
(2014)		 White Men Are Black Men Too
(2015)

Dead is the debut studio album by Scottish indie group Young Fathers. It was released on Anticon and Big Dada on 31 January 2014.[4] The album was the winner of the 2014 Mercury Prize.[5] It peaked at number 35 on the UK Albums Chart.[6]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic83/100[7]
Review scores
SourceRating
Clash9/10[8]
DIY[9]
Drowned in Sound7/10[10]
The Guardian[1]
The Line of Best Fit[11]
The Listfavourable[12]
Metro[3]
NME7/10[13]
The Observer[14]
PopMatters8/10[2]

Dead received critical acclaim from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 83, based on 13 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[7]

Clash magazine reviewers Felicity Martin and Mike Diver found that Dead was Young Fathers' "rawest, most emotion-heavy work to date" while noting that it "needed to represent progression without completely distancing itself from what'd come before. And that's a balance it strikes superbly."[8] Joe Price, writing for DIY magazine, described the album as "an incredibly confident and gorgeously composed debut" that made for a "captivating listen".[9] In his review for Drowned in Sound, Sam Moore praised the album's diversity, stating that "if you're looking for a thoroughly twenty-first-century record that'll challenge your preconceptions and bombard the senses, then Dead is something that's definitely worth your while" before offering the opinion that "it's a work that inescapably demands a response, a reaction. And that's a fine achievement for any debut album to rack up in this age of multimedia passivity."[10] The musical diversity of the album also impressed Guardian reviewer Alexis Petridis, who said that "Young Fathers have quietly constructed a strange and intoxicating musical universe that feels entirely their own, while no one else was paying attention."[1] The Line of Best Fit reviewer Jack Enright also found that the band had created "one of the most staggeringly exciting sounds of recent years", saying that "it's like nothing else out there."[11]

Reviewing Dead for Scottish magazine The List, David Pollock described it as "a record which redefines the boundaries of UK hip hop and Scotland's artistic landscape in one fell swoop."[12] Arwa Haider, writing for Metro, stated that the album "feels like a kind of coming-of-age: different and insistent from the strange, snappy lines of the first number 'No Way' to the gritty 'Mmmh Mmmh'."[3] NME critic Phil Hebblethwaite praised Dead's "wild mash of sonic and lyrical styles" but described it as "an album that's unique, but maddeningly all over the place."[13] Killian Fox, in his review for The Observer, noted that the band had "honour[ed] the Anticon sound while nudging it in more accessible directions" and stated that though "the balance between pop and experimentalism is very fine...Young Fathers strike it with exuberant ease."[14] PopMatters reviewer Nathan Stevens was similarly impressed, remarking that "if Dead proves anything it's that Young Fathers are one of the most versatile acts in hip-hop today" and describing the album as "a dizzying thrill".[2]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Rank Ref.
The Guardian Best Albums of 2014
17
The Skinny Albums of 2014
10

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."No Way"2:50
2."Low"3:11
3."Just Another Bullet"2:37
4."War"2:50
5."Get Up"4:06
6."Dip"3:03
7."Paying"3:12
8."Mmmh Mmmh"3:31
9."Hangman"2:53
10."Am I Not Your Boy"3:08
11."I've Arrived"3:23
Total length:34:48

Chart positions

Chart (2014) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[6] 35
UK R&B Albums (OCC)[17] 29

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Petridis, Alexis (30 January 2014). "Young Fathers: Dead". The Guardian.
  2. 1 2 3 Stevens, Nathan (13 February 2014). "Young Fathers: Dead | PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 Haider, Arwa (31 January 2014). "Young Fathers' Dead makes them contenders for the big time". Metro.
  4. ↑ Original release info:
  5. ↑ "2014 Shortlist". Barclaycard Mercury Prize. Archived from the original on 20 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Young Fathers | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  7. 1 2 "Critic Reviews for Dead – Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  8. 1 2 Martin, Felicity; Diver, Mike (20 January 2014). "Young Fathers – Dead". Clash.
  9. 1 2 Price, Joe (29 January 2014). "Young Fathers – Dead | DIY". DIY. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 Moore, Sam (28 October 2014). "Album Review: Young Fathers – Dead". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  11. 1 2 Enright, Jack (29 January 2014). "Album Review: Young Fathers – Dead | The Line of Best Fit". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  12. 1 2 Pollock, David (21 January 2014). "Young Fathers – Dead". The List.
  13. 1 2 Hebblethwaite, Phil (30 January 2014). "NME Reviews - Young Fathers - 'Dead' | NME.COM". NME. IPC Media. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  14. 1 2 Fox, Killian (2 February 2014). "Young Fathers: Dead – review". The Observer. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  15. ↑ "The best albums of 2014". The Guardian. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  16. ↑ McCall, Chris (2 December 2014). "Albums of 2014 (#10): Young Fathers – DEAD (Big Dada/Anticon)". The Skinny. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  17. ↑ February 2014/115/ "Official R&B Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
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