Blackhaine Saints in the Wethouse
Released Nov 13, 2026 XL Recordings
Consensus forming 3 professional reviews Updated Nov 14, 2026
Strong critical consensus
Consensus is still forming across 3 professional reviews. Blackhaine's Saints in the Wethouse turns familiar streets and club sounds into a disorienting, often remarkable psychological landscape.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Spirit
1 critic mention
“The album’s most transcendent track "Spirit" sees Blackhaine attempt to challenge this original sin” — The Line of Best Fit
5 Days
1 critic mention
“which dispenses with a rhythm entirely, and sets Heyes’s vocal against a mass of punishing electronics and squeals of feedback” — The Guardian
Born From Wound [Floodlights]
1 critic mention
“unexpectedly emerges from the raw-throated chaos of Born from Wound [Floodlights].” — The Guardian
Full critic consensus
Blackhaine's Saints in the Wethouse turns familiar streets and club sounds into a disorienting, often remarkable psychological landscape. Its 86.67/100 consensus score across three professional reviews points to a strong critical reception, built on the record's ability to make unease feel vivid and immersive rather than merely bleak.
Critics praise the album's intensity, though they differ on how readily its songs hold their shape. The Line of Best Fit singles out the spectral drift of “Valium” and the searching, scarred resolve of “Spirit,” which becomes a moment of attempted transcendence. The Guardian, by contrast, emphasizes how often the music slips beyond rap into punishing electronics and feedback: “5 Days” is abrasive, while “Born From Wound [Floodlights]” builds a wall of noise that can feel either distressing or cathartic. Both perspectives meet in the album's oppressive atmosphere, where even the unexpectedly pretty melody of “The Wind” turns unsettling. The eight-minute title-track closer offers no easy escape; its harsh-noise passage pulls the listener back from any sense of ascent to the soaked streets below. For anyone asking whether Saints in the Wethouse is worth hearing, the critical consensus suggests a challenging but distinctive work, with “Spirit” and the record's most confrontational passages providing its clearest entry points.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Cold Shoulder
Northside Needs Me
Valium
5 Days
Consumer
Born From Wound [Floodlights]
The Wind
Pyrex
Never Alone
Artwork
Spirit
Saints in the Wethouse
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Blackhaine turns the ordinary into something abstract on Saints in the Wethouse, an extraordinary musical psycho-scape where Northern rain falls like panes of glass and club lights flicker like visions of unreachable angels. The best songs on Saints in the Wethouse include the potent, ghost-town drift of “Valium” and the crime-laden visions of “Pyrex,” where he’s left with “nothing left to lose.” The most transcendent track, “Spirit,” sees Blackhaine challenge this original sin, reckoning with scars that ain’t healed and daring to feel alive. Then the titular eight-minute closer grabs your ankles and halts this ascent, its harsh noise passage a reminder that this reality remains, for now at least, here on the soaked streets.
Key Points
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“Spirit” is the album’s most transcendent track, daring to challenge its original sin and feel alive.
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Its abstract, weight-laden world makes grim streets and battered lives visionary, electrifying, and downright troubling.
Themes
mu
Critic's Take
Blackhaine’s best tracks on Saints in the Wethouse are outnumbered by songs that seem to have slipped the moorings of rap entirely. On “5 Days”, he sets his vocal against a mass of punishing electronics and squeals of feedback; “Born From Wound [Floodlights]” gives way to a wall of noise that could feel either deeply distressing and claustrophobic or oddly cathartic. “Consumer” is already a discomfiting listen, with its siren-like synths and funereal thud, while the unexpectedly pretty melody of “The Wind” ends up feeling not calming but creepy. Conjuring a mood so intense that it’s capable of swallowing anything nearby is hugely impressive.
Key Points
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“5 Days” is a standout for the way it strips away rhythm and sets the vocal against punishing electronics and feedback.
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The album’s core strength is its ability to make even a pretty melody feel creepy, drawing everything into an intense, unforgiving atmosphere.