Critical Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Robert Christgau | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| The Guardian | |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Slant Magazine | |
| Spin | 8/10 |
Aaliyah received very positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 14 reviews. Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club wrote that it "establishes as a major artist in her own right." Michael Odell of The Guardian felt that the album is "as much a brochure for the current state of R&B production facilities as it is about Aaliyah's voice". He found the music's textures "scintillating" and cited the album's "hallmark" as "a playful and confident reworking of the canon." Brad Cawn of the Chicago Tribune wrote that Aaliyah demonstrates "the poise of Sade and the adventurousness of Elliott", and stated, "It's cool and glittery neo-soul music, equal parts attitude and harmony, and all urban music perfection. Growing up never sounded so hot." Simon Price of The Independent cited the album as "further evidence that black pop is the avant garde."
Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone called it "a near-flawless declaration of strength and independence", and commended Aaliyah for "steering her sexuality and using it to explore her own fantasies and strengths." Craig Seymour of Entertainment Weekly called the album "thrillingly melodramatic" and opined that, apart from "missteps when she tries to stretch outside of her musical comfort zones", Aaliyah "skillfully portrays love as part woozy thrill, part pulse-racing terror." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani wrote that her "personality glimmers on every track" and compared her to Janet Jackson, but with "more fully-developed and far sexier" metaphors. Joshua Clover of Spin found it "deeper than anything she's delivered before" and commended Aaliyah for "investing sound schemes with urgency and emotional intricacy", writing that she "makes art out of formal finesse".
In a mixed review, Q observed "a fair bit of filler" and called the album "respectable rather than radical". Connie Johnson of the Los Angeles Times felt that its songwriting lacks "depth" and found it "light, pleasing and image-conscious, but lacking the personal revelation that gives music some immediacy." John Mulvey of NME called Aaliyah a "graceful album" that is mostly "satisfying rather than extraordinary" and viewed that it is redeemed by "the consistently decent songs of Static". Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a three-star honorable mention, indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure." He cited "We Need a Resolution" and "U Got Nerve" as highlights and quippedly called Aaliyah "a slave to her beats, but a proud slave".
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