Returnal | ||||
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Studio album by Oneohtrix Point Never | ||||
Released | June 22, 2010 | |||
Recorded | July – August 2009, February 2010 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 41:59 | |||
Label | Mego | |||
Producer | Daniel Lopatin | |||
Oneohtrix Point Never chronology | ||||
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Singles from Returnal | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Beats per Minute | 68% |
Drowned in Sound | 8/10 |
Fact | |
Pitchfork Media | 8.2/10 |
PopMatters | 8/10 |
Prefix | 7.5/10 |
Resident Advisor | |
Tiny Mix Tapes | |
Uncut |
Returnal is the fourth studio album by American electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never, released on June 22, 2010 by Mego Records. The album received positive reviews from critics.
Returnal was recorded and mixed by Lopatin using the programs Goldwave and Multiquence. Most of the material was produced in an air-conditioned room at his parents' house in Massachusetts (credited as "Ridge Valley Digital") from July to August 2009. The album's first song was recorded in Brooklyn. Instruments including the Akai AX60, the Roland Juno-60, the Roland MSQ-700 and the Korg Electribe ES-1 as well as voice parts by Lopatin are present throughout the album, although the Roland SP-555 and Sherman Filterbank were also used in the development process.
Lopatin described Returnal as a "Rousseau record", saying, "He’s a French painter during this exoticism period. They’re very interesting, they’re not one-to-one depictions of nature, explicitly because he didn’t really like or appreciate nature. So I was drawn to that, that’s kind of a vibe." He further explained to critic Simon Reynolds, "I wanted to make a world-music record. But make it hyperreal, refracted through not really being in touch with the world. [...] So I'm painting these pictures, not of the actual world, but of us watching that world." He described the imagined scenario behind the album's opening track "Nil Admirari": "the mom's sucked into CNN, freaking out about Code Orange terrorist shit, while the kid is in the other room playing Halo 3, inside that weird Mars environment, killing some James Cameron–type predator."