Critical reception
Until Now was met with mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 57, based on 9 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [2] David Jeffries from AllMusic commended the "dancefloor fillers" for being "bigger and more powerful this time out" while labelling "Don't You Worry Child" as the track that tops off the record, but stated that "there's little here that suggests Swedish House Mafia is more than the sum of its parts". [4] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian found that all of the songs were "subjected to the same heavy hand on the tiller: beats are stonkingly four-to-the-floor, singers wail, breakdowns shudder", but nonetheless commented on the album's "headbanging urgency", which prompts listeners to "tap a foot", thus classing it a success for the group. [7] Ben Weisz from MusicOMH felt that with the exception of a few "euphoric gems", the album "never quite shakes the feeling of being a little gratuitous" especially since there "isn't enough creative spark on the record to justify its existence". The critic did find the "wobbling percussion" on "Leave the World Behind" to be "genuinely chilling" and hailed the remix of "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" to be the "greatest Coldplay remix ever fashioned" with its harmonies and breaks. [12]
In The Washington Post , Allison Stewart observed that there was no shortage of "blissed-out, Euro-inspired tracks" and was impressed with the Coldplay rework and "Don't You Worry Child", which she described as "seamless, roof-rattling and capital-B Big". [14] Robert Copsey from Digital Spy realised that although there was little new to be found within the songs, which "makes for an exhausting hour and 15 minutes", the album's intention was "never one of a cohesive, journey-leading record" but instead its strength lies in the group's live act: "In that sense, Until Now is a job well done". [15]
Mikael Wood from Los Angeles Times observed that while there was nothing in the "vocal-heavy set" that "suggests an aversion to pop", that Until Now "sounds more like a beginning than an end" despite coinciding with the group's retirement. [9] BBC's Matthew Horton noted the group's mastery of controlling the "ecstasy rush" as there is "barely a track in this loosely mixed set that doesn't wheel out the intensifying beats and rising acid synths of the big hands-in-the-air crescendo", but felt that it was "exhausting" and "impatient" due to them incorporating unearned "big moments" that were "thrown into the record whenever the ideas pot runs dry". [16] Writing for Consequence of Sound , Derek Staples criticised the album's deluxe edition for being "excessively current" and "stuck in the recency effect" as there was no showcase of seasoned talent that would allow listeners to see their influences. The critic compared the record to Erol Alkan's Bugged Out Mix, which spanned four decades of tracks, however concluded that the record was still "exactly what they [the fans] wanted out of the trio". [5] T'cha Dunlevy of Montreal Gazette labelled the album "a bit of an anticlimax" with its release being paired with the group's breakup announcement, yet noted the effective but "over the top and cringe-inducing" track makeovers of Miike Snow, Usher and Florence & the Machine. [11] Aidin Vaziri from San Francisco Chronicle felt that even with the "psychotically high" energy level of the record, the songs would be "better suited playing in the background of Mountain Dew commercials than on headphones at home". [17] Smith Galtney from Las Vegas Weekly commented that, "If Michael Bay made club music, it would sound just like Until Now", whose tracks are clocked in "EPMs (explosions per minute)" where "buildups begat crescendos and big moments merely exist to create even bigger ones". [8] Ron Harris of The San Diego Union-Tribune criticised the album's predictability since previous electronica listeners will "know every note that is about to come and every drum roll that looms around each corner". The critic agreed that listeners who enjoy "fast and loud" beats "devoid" of their Chicago/Detroit framework roots will enjoy the record, but felt that it was "a touch simplistic" beneath its "flat mixing and uninventive tempo builds". [18]
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