Even In Arcadia by Sleep Token

Sleep Token Even In Arcadia

59
ChoruScore
9 reviews
May 9, 2025
Release Date
Sleep Token/RCA Records
Label

Sleep Token's Even In Arcadia arrives as a high-stakes, genre-bending statement that aims for mainstream breakthrough while keeping the project's ritualistic mystique intact. Critics across nine professional reviews land on a divided but clear verdict: the record earned a 58.78/100 consensus score across 9 reviews, and its strongest moments are the songs that balance pop craft with the band's theatrical ambition. For readers asking "is Even In Arcadia good" and "what are the best songs on Even In Arcadia", tracks repeatedly singled out include “Look To Windward”, “Caramel”, “Infinite Baths”, “Damocles” and “Past Self”.

Professional reviews agree that Even In Arcadia expands Sleep Token's sonic palette - moving between ambient sweep, R&B-tinged balladry and sanitized pop-rap - and that those shifts produce both triumphant peaks and conspicuous weaknesses. Praise centers on the album's grandeur and emotional intensity: critics from Rolling Stone, Kerrang! and Clash praise the sprawling opener “Look To Windward” and the closing “Infinite Baths” for their narrative arc and cinematic heft, while NME, Classic Rock and The Skinny highlight “Caramel” and “Damocles” as intimate, revealing focal points. Those reviewers praise Vessel's willingness to confront fame, fan culture and creative anxiety through moments of vulnerability and melodic contrast.

At the same time, several reviews voice sharp reservations about songwriting, production and the record's commercial ambitions. Pitchfork and Sputnikmusic criticize pop-polish, overprocessed vocals and diluted metal aggression, and The Needle Drop singles out questionable tonal choices that undermine heavier passages. The consensus suggests Even In Arcadia is ambitious and occasionally essential for fans seeking emotional spectacle, yet uneven enough that its best tracks - notably “Look To Windward”, “Caramel” and “Infinite Baths” - are what make a case for listening. Below, the full reviews unpack where the album's grandiosity succeeds and where its compromises leave it divisive in the band's catalog.

Critics' Top Tracks

The standout songs that made critics take notice

1

Caramel

5 mentions

"follow-up track ‘Caramel’ gatecrashed the UK Top 10"
New Musical Express (NME)
2

Look To Windward

9 mentions

"Eight-minute opener ‘Look To Windward’ could be an entire album in itself."
New Musical Express (NME)
3

Infinite Baths

7 mentions

"the latter’s utopian imagery is crushed by pounding blackgaze and doom metal"
New Musical Express (NME)
follow-up track ‘Caramel’ gatecrashed the UK Top 10
N
New Musical Express (NME)
about "Caramel"
Read full review
5 mentions
73% sentiment

Track Ratings

How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.

View:
1

Look To Windward

9 mentions
100
07:46
2

Emergence

6 mentions
69
06:26
3

Past Self

6 mentions
83
03:34
4

Dangerous

5 mentions
78
04:11
5

Caramel

5 mentions
100
04:50
6

Even In Arcadia

6 mentions
25
04:28
7

Provider

7 mentions
06:05
8

Damocles

7 mentions
100
04:24
9

Gethsemane

2 mentions
19
06:23
10

Infinite Baths

7 mentions
100
08:23

What Critics Are Saying

Deep insights from 10 critics who reviewed this album

23

Critic's Take

In sharply dismissive tones Eli Enis argues that Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia mostly fails where it should thrill, and his verdict centers on songs like “Look to Windward” and “Emergence” as emblematic misfires. He depicts “Look to Windward” as an overstuffed opener that never coheres, and calls “Emergence” a rag doll of cheesy EDM, cornball rapping, and faux-alt-metal. The review keeps returning to the record’s sanitized pop-rap approach, which leaves few genuine metal pleasures intact, so the best tracks here are the ones that at least hint at heft but ultimately fall short. This is a critique framed for readers searching for the best tracks on Even In Arcadia, explaining why those moments do not redeem the album.

Key Points

  • The best song moments, like those in "Look to Windward", are notable only for their ambition but fail in execution.
  • The album’s core strength is polished production and theatrical presentation, but it sacrifices metal’s aggression and authenticity.

Themes

commercialization of metal dilution of djent sanitized pop-rap fusion loss of metal aggression theatrics and image vs substance

Critic's Take

Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here: on Sleep Token's Even in Arcadia the best tracks are the ones that at least try to nod toward pop songwriting - notably “Past Self” and “Caramel” - but even they are hamstrung by hideous sound and overprocessed vocals. “Past Self” reads like a slowed Ed Sheeran pastiche that reveals how much the band favors pop gestures over genuine depth, while “Caramel” pairs a theatrical music-box melody with an inexplicable reggaeton groove that moments of heaviness cannot redeem. The record rarely convinces as metal or meaningful art; for listeners asking "best songs on Even In Arcadia," these two stand out by default, but they still underline the album's bland, uninspired songwriting and atrocious guitar tones.

Key Points

  • The best song(s) by default are “Past Self” and “Caramel” because they at least foreground pop songwriting amid the album's flaws.
  • The album's core strengths are its pop-leaning melodies and breezy runtime, but these are undermined by poor guitar tones, artificial vocals, and bland writing.

Critic's Take

Following their trilogy, Sleep Token push further on Even In Arcadia, and the best songs - particularly “Caramel” and “Provider” - show why. The reviewer lingers on how “Caramel” confronts obsessive fan culture with naked lines like 'They can sing the words while I cry into the bassline', making it an emotional centerpiece. The stately opener “Look to Windward” and closer “Infinite Baths” create a satisfying narrative arc, while “Past Self” offers pop and rap flourishes that broaden the album's reach. Overall the record is ambitious and sometimes overwhelming, but its best tracks reward close listening.

Key Points

  • Caramel is the best song because it confronts obsessive fan culture with raw, quoted lines and emotional clarity.
  • The album's core strengths are genre-blending ambition and candid emotional lyricism, tied together by a loose narrative arc.

Themes

genre-blending emotional vulnerability fan culture narrative arc

Critic's Take

From the first howl on Even In Arcadia the record trades in surprises and spectacle, and Maura Johnston hears the best tracks as proof. The opener “Look To Windward” is a blaring red signal, its dial-tone synths, charging strings and steamrolled guitars announcing that the best songs on Even In Arcadia will not be predictable. “Emergence” shifts between ghostly beauty and arpeggiated madness, and “Damocles” is an arresting, sparkling treatise on creative anxiety that makes the album’s strengths audible. Closing cut “Infinite Baths” leaves Vessel clearer-eyed and the record emotionally huge, which is why those tracks stand out as the best songs here.

Key Points

  • The best song is the opener "Look To Windward" because its shape-shifting drama sets the album’s tone.
  • The album’s core strengths are genre-blending arrangements, Vessel’s emotive vocals, and thematic depth around identity and creative anxiety.

Themes

mystery and anonymity genre-blending existential depth performative identity creative anxiety
Sputnikmusic logo

Sputnikmusic

Unknown
May 9, 2025
30

Critic's Take

Sleep Token once again aim for grandiosity on Even In Arcadia, but the record mostly proves their weaknesses rather than concealing them. The review’s best tracks - “Provider” and “Damocles” - are praised as fleeting highlights amid an hour of empty climaxes. Vessel’s voice occasionally fits mid-tempo alt-rock passages and the latter half of “Provider”, yet everywhere else the songwriting and lyrics leave the songs feeling hollow. This review answers the question of the best songs on Even In Arcadia by pointing to those sparse moments of coherence rather than the album as a whole.

Key Points

  • The best song is the latter half of "Provider" because Vessel's voice finally fits the grungy tones and the performance coheres.
  • The album's strengths are occasional moments of focused songwriting and mid-tempo vocal comfort, but these are overwhelmed by hollow grandiosity and poor lyrics.

Themes

genre-hopping songwriting weakness vocal limitations fame and doxxing grandiosity vs hollowness

Critic's Take

Sleep Token’s Even In Arcadia feels like a triumphant escalation rather than a retread, with standout moments such as “Look To Windward” and “Caramel” proving the band can marry cinematic heft with pop cunning. Shah writes with breathless conviction that songs like “Look To Windward” are almost whole albums in themselves, and that “Caramel” and “Damocles” lay bare the troubled humanity behind Vessel - details that answer searches for the best tracks on Even In Arcadia. The review praises how the title track and closing pair push the band into stranger, grander territory, making clear why fans and newcomers alike will want to know the best songs on Even In Arcadia.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Look To Windward", is lauded as an eight-minute epic that encapsulates the album’s cinematic tension and heaviness.
  • The album’s core strengths are bold genre-bending, dramatic production, and unusually exposed, candid lyrics from Vessel.

Themes

mainstream breakthrough genre-bending personal exposure mythic lore sonic heft vs ambience
80

Critic's Take

Sleep Token push themselves harder on Even In Arcadia, doubling down on ambition and intensity while sharpening their textures. The reviewer insists you should listen alone, lights off, tissues nearby, which makes clear why “Look To Windward” and “Emergence” stand out as the best tracks on Even In Arcadia. “Look To Windward” is praised for its eight-minute scope, chiptune-like chords and orchestral splashes, while “Emergence” is noted as a smoother synthesis of the band’s disparate genres. Overall the tone is celebratory and awed, crediting Vessel and co. for elevating their sound into something almost six-dimensional.

Key Points

  • The best song, “Look To Windward”, is lauded for its expansive eight-minute arrangement and vivid sonic details.
  • The album’s core strengths are ambitious sonic expansion, emotional intensity, and a polished synthesis of genres.

Themes

ambition sonic expansion emotional intensity genre synthesis

Critic's Take

Sleep Token's Even In Arcadia finds the band stretching into new genre territory while refining its signature mystique, and the review clearly points to standout songs as proof. The opener “Look to Windward” is praised as a seven-minute declaration of intent, an out-of-this-world space where warm melody meets a piercing explosion. The R&B-leaning “Past Self” and the electronic ballad-esque “Dangerous” are singled out for their dynamic shifts and quietude-before-storm vitality, making them among the best tracks on Even In Arcadia. Finally, the emotional “Damocles” and the heavy finale “Infinite Baths” are cited as connective and conclusive moments that underline why these are the best songs on the album.

Key Points

  • The best song is the seven-minute opener "Look To Windward" because it crystallizes the album's melodic warmth and explosive payoff.
  • The album's core strengths are its emotional range, genre exploration, and refined mystique that binds the tracks together.

Themes

creative growth emotional range genre exploration melodic contrast grand mystique

Critic's Take

In her measured, observant voice Holly Wright argues that Sleep Token's Even In Arcadia finds its best moments in mood and detail rather than arena anthems - chief among them “Caramel”, “Infinite Baths” and “Look To Windward”. She praises “Caramel” for gliding on a reggaeton pulse and confessional line, elevates “Infinite Baths” as the deepest cut with Pink Floyd-tinged guitar grandeur, and calls “Look To Windward” a spiralling, Ihsahn-adjacent extravaganza that nearly matches past glories. The review frames these best tracks as proof that the band can expand its audience while laying themselves bare, even if the album sometimes feels calculated.

Key Points

  • Infinite Baths is best for its Pink Floyd-evoking guitar grandeur and epic, punishing finale.
  • The album's core strengths are intimate, confessional lyrics and bold genre-splicing that expand Sleep Token's audience.

Themes

fame and its pressures intimacy and confession genre-blending writer's block commercial ambition vs artistry