Kick IIIII

## **kiCK iiiii**Studio album by Arca

"**Kick IIIII**" (stylized as "**kiCK iiiii**", pronounced Kick Five) is the eighth studio album by Venezuelan record producer Arca. It was released on December 3, 2021, through XL Recordings as the fifth and final installment in the "kick" series and was not supported by singles. The album was released with no warning.

## Background

As the release of KiCk i had went by, Arca had taken to Pitchfork that their would be an expansion of the "Kick series", and stating that: "There will be four volumes. The third one is a little bit more introverted than *Kick I*, a little bit more like my self-titled album, I guess. The fourth one is piano only, no vocals. Right now, the least defined one, strangely, is the third one. It's all gestating right now [...] Each *Kick* exists in a kind of quantum state until the day that I send it to mastering. I try to not commit until I have to. But I have a vision for it. The second one is heavy on backbeats, vocal manipulation, mania, and craziness." The fifth one had taken place of what Arca had originally stated about the fourth kick.

Around November 2021, Arca had posted a photo on her story of a file storage folder of all of the Kicks, with it's files inside of them. kiCK iiiii could be seen below all of them, labeled as 'K5',

## Composition

kiCK iiiii is mainly a ambient piece of work with calming works inside of it. The creeping "In The Face" taken from the 62-minute single @@@@@ serves as the first track, while the synth-built "Pu" strikes soft keys upon it's sound.

## Critical reception

kiCK iiiii was met with generally favorable reviews. On review aggregate site Metacritic, *Kick IIIII* received a score of 77 out of 100, based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Pitchfork's Philip Sherburne has stated "Against the preceding volumes’ most attention-grabbing moments, they may risk getting lost in the shuffle, but perhaps that is part of their charm, too: The whole fifth volume feels like an Easter egg in a video game—a sparkly basket of jewels collected from the crevices of Arca’s more imposingly monumental works." Resident Advisor's Zach Tippitt had said "These songs are whittled down, a rare moment where the overwhelming density of Arca's music falls away, raw and stripped of any protective coating. ... There's a newfound and striking intimacy—the last gasps of the KiCK series before the explosive climax "Crown," where kiCK iiiii's softness is ripped apart by cathartic blasts of noise. It's one final, triumphant punch that leaves everything on the table." Meanwhile, NME's El Hunt stated "'iiiii’ floats up into the clouds – often pairing sparse plunks of piano with haunting choral vocals and snippets of ethereal sound design. Of all ‘Kick’s instalments, this one is the most meandering, focused on conjuring up an atmosphere, and living within it."

## Merch

**Standard Black LP**
$22.08
Purchase

**Ejecting Compact Disc**
$13.58
Purchase

## Outtakes

**Bold** typing indicates that the song has been officially released

*Italic* typing indicates that the song was never released and has yet to leak fully online.

Underlined typing indicates that the song, snippets of the song, or lyrics have been leaked/posted/performed at some point, but not in studio quality.

* "**Risueño**"
* "**Birth**"

## Album-art

Uncropped album cover

"Pu"
"Chiquito"
"Estrogen"
"Ether"
"Amrep"
"Tierno"
"Músculos"
"La Infinita"
"Fireprayer"
"Crown"