"Earl Sweatshirt used to make you sift through the mud to find the gold. [Here], the nuggets are gleaming right on the surface ... The beats are split evenly between the lo-fi-adjacent work he's favored for the past five years and the darker side of contemporary trap preferred by artists like Lucki (who Earl's produced for in the past) and Young Nudy ... The whiplash of rap styles emphasizes Earl's growing confidence in his craft, as does the decision to bring in legendary engineer Young Guru for a decidedly clean mixing job. Compared to Earl's earlier work, Sick! is literally and figuratively crystal clear ... 'Sick!' doesn't recontextualize the genre in the same way 'Some Rap Songs' did, but it's an act of self-revolution. It magnifies a newly assured Earl Sweatshirt, skin shed and free to ascend".