Sweet Disarray

The closing track, "Home", is a sweet, jangly folk-pop tune that was inspired by Croll's days as a broke student, coming home after an ill-advised and ill-prepared-for winter weekend getaway to Berlin.^[1]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	59/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Clash	6/10[4]
Consequence of Sound	D+[5]
DIY	[6]
Filter	82%[7]
The Guardian	[8]
The Irish Times	[9]
The Independent	[10]
The Independent on Sunday	[11]
Under the Radar	[12]

At Metacritic, which assigns a rated mean out of 100 from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 59, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".^[2] Writing for AllMusic, Timothy Monger gave the album four out of five stars, calling Sweet Disarray a "colorful and immaculately produced debut album" which "proves [that] Croll has both a forward-looking experimentalism and pretty solid songwriting chops to boot. In spite of the extremely high expectations, he has managed a pretty neat debut that will please fans who have been waiting since his early singles".^[3] In her review for The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan compared Croll to American singer-songwriter Jack Johnson and declared Sweet Disarray "a pretty good album" that "conflates lilting Scousepop and electronica into a warm nether-genre, with added sleek choruses that sound equally right on 6Music and Radio 1.^[8] Filter magazine journalist Laura Studarus called Sweet Disarray "a rare debut, as well crafted as it is likeable". She praised its "sound that suggests Paul McCartney with a taste for Afro-pop, rock, electronics and the occasional grand-sweeping, Paul Simon–style folk gesture."^[7]

DIY author Emma Swann felt that "despite [its] variety, not once does the record feel disjointed, or out of place. It’s a skill, but Croll’s soothing vocals, as well as he and his team’s spot-on engineering of the whole lot means it can slide from that soaring single to Croll’s inner Justin Timberlake via steel guitars and ukulele without missing a beat. It’s pleasantly pristine stuff from the still relative newcomer".^[6] Joe Rivers, writing for Clash magazine, found that Sweet Disarray was "patchy" and that it "would be an unremarkable singer-songwriter album were it not for Croll's welcome smatterings of electronica, soul and, most intriguingly, Afrobeat throughout.^[4] In his The Independent review, Andy Gill wrote that Croll's "ambitious arrangements need more disarray, and less sweetness".^[10] Similarly, Kate Wills from sister newspaper The Independent on Sunday concluded that Sweet Disarray "won’t frighten the horses, but it might encourage you to buy an overpriced T-shirt. Job’s a good ’un."^[11] Less impressed, Randall Colburn from Consequence of Sound felt that the album "reads more like a college thesis designed to satiate a panel of professors than it does an original document". He added that it "sounds like a who’s who of Spotify buzz bands, a time-stamped memo alerting music executives to the mainstream’s idea of indie rock [...] Croll remains a mystery, a patchwork of influences content to blend in, not to stand out."^[5]

Sweet Disarray debuted and peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart in the week of 16 March 2014.^[13] In the United States, it reached number 12 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart.^[14]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Sweet Disarray.^[15]