John Barleycorn Must Die - Reception

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau C+

Retrospective reviews of the album have been mixed to negative. Allmusic criticized the vocal sections as "excuses for Winwood to exercise his expressive voice as punctuation to the extended instrumental sections", but made note of how the album took the band's jazz/rock leanings beyond mere jamming. Robert Christgau's brief review dismissed the album for lacking Dave Mason, who he saw as the only member of the group with any talent.

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