Brumalia EP

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Clixie Music	[3]
Drowned in Sound	[4]
The Independent	[5]
NME	[6]
Pitchfork Media	(5.9/10)[7]

The album received mixed to positive reviews. A reviewer at Clixie Music hailed it as a "swirl of beautiful melodies driving a highly romantic record, destined for your hearts from very beginning" that reads "almost like a personal diary from start to finish."^[3]

Although reviewer Hayley Avron compliments aspects of the individual tracks, she is unimpressed by the EP as a whole, stating that it is overshadowed by the full-length Lupercalia.^[4] Avron concludes that although individually strong, the EP as a whole lacks the "instant warm appeal of the Lupercalia tracks" and "as a mini-album," makes for "an unsteady journey" in which the tracks "end up feeling a little like a case of concept over content."^[4] Andy Gill from The Independent describes "Time of Year" as a song with "big beats, cheesy honking reeds and a brief rattle of sleighbells," but does not comment on the overall album.^[5] Jazz Monroe from NME commends the album for exposing the "blemishes" otherwise perfected in other artists, but describes much of Wolf's vocals on the album as "wailing," "whining," "warbling," and "brooding." He praises the song "Jerusalem" as a "glisteningly elegiac centrepiece" for the album.^[6] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork sees the album as an attempted reconstruction of Wolf's first two LPs, but states that although the album's tracks are "as lavishly produced as his proper records, the little sonic footnotes and specificity give Brumalia a demo-level, real-time immediacy that rarely comes through despite his gregarious persona."^[7] Cohen concludes by stating that "Wolf remains theoretically fascinating because he tries too hard" and that the EP "ends up being as frustrating as his previous albums because Wolf appears capable of giving us anything to the point where comfort is not enough."^[7]