Dying in Stereo

Dying in Stereo
Studio album by Northern State
Released	June 3, 2002 (2002-06-03)
Genre	Hip hop music
Length	32:37
Label	Startime International Columbia
Northern State chronology
Hip Hop You Haven't Heard (2002) Dying in Stereo (2002) All City (2004)

Dying in Stereo is the second release by New York City-based alternative hip hop group Northern State. It was first released on June 3, 2002, on Startime International, and then re-released in May 2003 by Columbia Records. ^[1] It has been described variously as an EP and a "mini-album". Nevertheless, it is usually described as their official debut album, since their only previous release ( Hip Hop You Haven't Heard ) was a self-released four-song demo. This led PopMatters to describe it as a "litmus test" that will determine "what will happen to white, female, feminist rappers, who aren’t pencil-thin or supermodel pretty." ^[2]

Reception

The album received generally favorable reviews from critics. ^[3] The exceptions to this trend included Pitchfork Media, which gave it a scathing review in which the reviewer, Michael Idov, described the album as "the most heinous hip-hop release since MC Skat Kat went solo", ^[4] and Drowned in Sound , which described Northern State as "a pointless hybrid of the Beastie Boys and *N-tyce (from the female wing of the Wu)." ^[5] Many other critics also compared Dying in Stereo's music to that of the Beastie Boys. ^[6]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100 [3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[7]
Drowned in Sound	1/10 [5]
Entertainment Weekly	B+ [8]
NME	6/10 [9]
Pitchfork Media	0.8/10 [4]
PopMatters	(mixed) [2]
Robert Christgau	A [10]
Rolling Stone	[11]
Spin	B [6]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"A Thousand Words"	3:37
2.	"Trinity"	4:11
3.	"At the Party"	3:42
4.	"The Man's Dollar"	3:28
5.	"Vicious Cycle"	4:39
6.	"Signal Flow (You Can't Fade Me)"	4:07
7.	"All the Same"	4:05
8.	"Dying in Stereo"	4:47

References

1. "Columbia Records Set to Release All City, Eagerly-Awaited New Album From Northern State" (Press release). Sony Corporation. May 24, 2004. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
2. Powers, Devon (June 30, 2003). "Dying in Stereo Review". PopMatters. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
3. Dying in Stereo, Metacritic
4. Idov, Michael (2003) "Northern State Dying in Stereo", Pitchfork Media, July 17, 2003
5. McKeating, Scott (April 13, 2003). "Dying in Stereo". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
6. Reilly, Phoebe (July 15, 2003). "Northern State Start the Party". Spin . Retrieved May 29, 2014.
7. Wilson, MacKenzie. "Dying in Stereo". Allmusic. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
8. Hermes, Will (June 6, 2003). "Dying In Stereo (2003)". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
9. Carhart-Harris (June 2, 2003). "Dying in Stereo". NME. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
10. "CG: Northern State" . Retrieved May 29, 2014.
11. Hoard, Christian (June 12, 2003). "Northern State, Dying in Stereo". Rolling Stone . Wenner Media. Archived from the original on May 24, 2003. Retrieved December 20, 2014.