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Luminescent Creatures Image
Metascore
86

Universal acclaim - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The latest full-length release from Japanese folk artist Ichiko Aoba was inspired in part from diving in the oceans near Japan's Ryukyu Archipelago.
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  • Record Label: Psychic Hotline
  • Genre(s): Folk, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Feb 27, 2025
    90
    With this latest album, Ichiko Aoba has created yet another subsuming listen, an oceanic and blissful record that is a masterclass in escapism.
  2. Mar 3, 2025
    89
    Yes – this is possibly Aoba’s best work. Music incomparable to anything else, beautiful and eternal.
  3. Feb 26, 2025
    85
    Aoba doubles down on the grandeur with a record that’s even more accessible, and perhaps even more thematically cohesive than its direct predecessor.
  4. Uncut
    Feb 26, 2025
    80
    Its watery, dreamlike soundscapes are totally immersive on one of those records that - temporarily at least - can make the cares of the world seem to melt away. [Mar 2025, p.29]
  5. Feb 28, 2025
    80
    Soothing as a sound bath, yet powerful in its world-building, Aoba’s continued ascent to stardom might seem unlikely, yet this is nurturing music for bleak times.
  6. Record Collector
    Feb 26, 2025
    80
    Luminescent Creatures confirms Aoba as one of folk music's most consistently beguiling artists. [Feb 2025, p.102]
  7. Mar 5, 2025
    74
    There are minor exceptions here – the wondrous flourishes of opener "COLORATURA", the lilting inflections Aoba rides on "Luciférine", the aching nostalgia of the centrepiece "FLAG" (for my money, the one true Aoba classic here in every sense of the word) – but you'll be hard-pressed to find a record so full of subtle details that puts so little emphasis on the spectacle of individual moments, that drifts so freely within itself.

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