Maribou State Hallucinating Love
Released Jan 31, 2025 Ninja Tune
Established consensus 6 professional reviews Updated Oct 15, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Maribou State's Hallucinating Love turns a period of anxiety and darkness toward renewal, pairing emotional resilience with the duo’s warm, organic electronic production.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Otherside
2 critic mentions
“Otherside” , featuring longtime collaborator Holly Walker, follows with a funky conga-driven beat, its melodies weaving in and out of shimmering production.” — Glide Magazine
Peace Talk
2 critic mentions
“Peace Talk” reunites the duo with Holly Walker, offering another standout moment of hypnotic beauty” — Glide Magazine
Rolling Stone
2 critic mentions
“The album’s closer, “Rolling Stone,” feels like a moment of quiet triumph, a fitting conclusion to a record shaped by resilience and renewal.” — Glide Magazine
Full critic consensus
Maribou State's Hallucinating Love turns a period of anxiety and darkness toward renewal, pairing emotional resilience with the duo’s warm, organic electronic production. The critical reception is favorable: the album earns a 78.33/100 consensus score across six professional reviews, suggesting a thoughtful, rewarding evolution rather than a sharp break from the sound that made the pair distinctive.
Critics praise the record’s lush textures, hypnotic grooves, and flashes of grandeur. Among the best songs on Hallucinating Love, “Otherside” stands out for its shimmering melodies and contagious bassline, while “Peace Talk” draws attention for its beauty and defining strings. “Rolling Stone” offers a quieter sense of triumph, and reviewers also single out the hook-laden “Dance on the World” as an irresistible highlight. Together, these tracks capture the album’s movement toward hope and togetherness without losing its intimate feel.
The strongest moments balance electronic detail with organic instrumentation: congas and bass bring physicality to “Otherside,” while “Peace Talk” expands through strings. Instrumental passages add another dimension, from the spiritual piano and cello of “Passing Clouds” to the guitar solo closing “Rolling Stone.” Critics also note the neoclassical color in “Blackoak.” Rather than treating adversity as a dead end, the record frames it as a passage toward connection and brighter possibilities. For anyone asking whether Hallucinating Love is worth hearing, the consensus points to an assured, quietly uplifting return, with several standout tracks to lead the way.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Blackoak
Otherside
II Remember
All I Need
Dance on the World
Bloom
Peace Talk
Passing Clouds
Eko’s
Rolling Stone
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 6 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Maribou State returns with Hallucinating Love, an album that feels like both a reflection on the past and a step into something new. The best tracks on Hallucinating Love find the duo’s lush production at its most hypnotic: “Peace Talk” offers a standout moment of beauty, while “Otherside” weaves shimmering melodies around a funky, conga-driven beat. The album’s best songs build toward “Rolling Stone,” a moment of quiet triumph, its warm textures and subtle grooves evoking movement toward something brighter.
Key Points
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“Peace Talk” is a standout for its hypnotic beauty, bringing the duo and Holly Walker together again.
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The album’s core strengths are its lush, organic production and its movement from atmospheric textures to warm, subtly grooving triumph.
Themes
Critic's Take
Maribou State return with Hallucinating Love, an album born out of dark, anxiety-ridden periods but looking towards the future with hope. The best songs on Hallucinating Love include “Otherside”, whose contagious bassline steals the show, and the hook-laden “Dance on the World”, as irresistible as its title suggests. There’s an added grandeur throughout, with the string section that defines “Peace Talk” and the neoclassical influence seeping into multi-faceted “Blackoak”. The album shines in its short-lived instrumental breaks, be it the spiritual piano and cello in “Passing Clouds” or the John Frusciante-esque guitar solo in closer “Rolling Stone”.
Key Points
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“Otherside” is the standout, with a contagious bassline that steals the show and momentum that makes it the album’s guiding light.
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The album’s added grandeur, euphoric alt-pop melodies, and vivid instrumental breaks enrich a sound that feels like a safe but natural step forward.
Themes
