Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
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  1. Apr 23, 2025
    100
    Taylor’s rapturous explorations of womanhood are torn through the mundanity of growing older, the depressive nature of Groundhog Day-normality and the catharsis of splitting even further as age makes concrete her contradictions. Across this - her most concentrated and burning record - Taylor’s hardened Sheffield-isms float through the tearjerker soul of a thousand women.
  2. Apr 23, 2025
    100
    The third Self Esteem album that takes the best parts of Prioritise Pleasure and her debut Compliments Please, and turns it all up to 10.
  3. Apr 23, 2025
    100
    Rebecca Lucy Taylor's third album as Self Esteem sharpens what’s always been at the core of her musical identity: the tension between frank vulnerability and pop maximalism.
  4. Apr 29, 2025
    80
    ‘A Complicated Woman’ is not your average pop record. Then again, Self Esteem is not your average pop star. This is an album born for the stage.
  5. Apr 28, 2025
    80
    A Complicated Woman brims with exemplary vocals, winning beats, and Taylor’s seamless pivots from the risqué to the empathic to the exhortative.
  6. Apr 23, 2025
    80
    Don't let the bubblegum lightness obscure her visionary talent. [May 2025, p.105]
  7. Apr 29, 2025
    77
    Corners are filled and silences left for dramatic effect. Sometimes the effect saturates, leaving certain numbers in the shadows of the grandest moments. .... However, some of the best moments come when Taylor sets aside the strings and choir, putting the focus on a driving beat.
  8. 70
    The album as a whole is a safer affair than Taylor’s previous releases, but for the most part it’s very good, and its cohesion isn’t necessarily a weakness. Still, it’s hard not to approach a new Self Esteem album expecting some kind of life-changing revelation, six months of therapy condensed into an hour-long speedrun.
  9. Uncut
    Apr 23, 2025
    70
    A predominantly female choir features throughout, boosting Taylor's crises of confidence on "Focus Is Power" and "What Now" into communal rallying cries. But there is fun here too. [May 2025, p.39]

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