21CB Metacritic Reviews

[Rezurgam]

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/gr...enturybreakdown

78 right now, which is pretty good. More reviews will probably be added tomorrow and as time passes. Might as well use this thread as a reviews thread because Metacritic is basically an accumulation of reviews right?

[jose armstrong]

nice

straight to number one in the billboard chart, I'm telling ya

this is it, the moment we've been waiting for

[Eldoon]

Who wants to bet that Pitchfork, in order to maintain their cred and retcon the positive review they gave American Idiot, will give this a laughably pretentious and low score?

Also, that SputnikMusic review is way off base a lot of the time, which pissed me off; singling out the line in "Last of the American Girls" without the context of the line before it OR understanding the Critical Mass bike pun is pretty dodgy.

[Sharmellow]

Not bad, not bad.

That's a B+.

Took a major drop because of Sputnik.

[Guest Hayley]

Not bad, not bad.

That's a B+.

Took a major drop because of Sputnik.

True...

[Bastard of 1967]

The Washington Post has a review up. I can't tell whether the guy liked the album or not, he writes more vaguely than BJA does!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9051404087.html

Amazing how many of these reviewers think "well, Obama got elected so the world must be okay again...."

[Eldoon]

God, "they offer questions but no answers" is the biggest cop-out criticism I've ever heard for politico-rock, and it keeps popping up in a handful of these reviews. Did anyone ever criticize The Clash for questioning their surroundings throughout their career? Ridiculous.

"Eldoon gets upset about Green Day reviews - the thread!"

[Elis_x]

Not bad, not bad.

That's a B+.

Took a major drop because of Sputnik.

agree... but still, very good.

[Bastard of 1967]

God, "they offer questions but no answers" is the biggest cop-out criticism I've ever heard for politico-rock, and it keeps popping up in a handful of these reviews. Did anyone ever criticize The Clash for questioning their surroundings throughout their career? Ridiculous.

"Eldoon gets upset about Green Day reviews - the thread!"

I see a common thread in most of the negative reviews -- the review usually begins with a sarcastic swipe at the "Dookie Days" where Green Day was best known for singing about masturbation, a reminder that they panned American Idiot and "somehow" it went on to become a band-defining success, and then a note about one or both of these subjects: (1) "they offer questions but no answers"; and/or (2) "Know your Enemy" is too repetitive. The positive reviews tend to go a lot deeper than this, discussing the complexities in the album, the richer sound of the music, the maturation of the lyrics, etc. My conclusion: many of the negative reviews are being written by someone coming from the perspective of "I hate Green Day, I've always hated Green Day, I don't know why they got so popular with a piece of shit record like American Idiot, and -- OH GOODY!!! -- they've given me another great reason to lay into them again." The more favorable reviews would, in contrast, seem to be written by people who at least are bringing an open mind to 21CB.

Good thing that BJA doesn't seem to give a flying about what other people think of him.

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

The NME's blog thing pretty much summed up how shit their magazine is.

"The self appointed spokesmen for a generation who didn't ask for anyone to speak for them"

People didn't ask for one? Why are you trying to big up that gobby little fucker from The Enemy as your "spokesperson for a generation" then?

Worryingly though it's the Rolling Stone review at the top, which is a magazine I also hate, whose "greatest album ever" is Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album commonly rated as 4th or 5th best Beatles album by most Beatles fans. "Oooh it's got a shiny and bright cover! Let's say it revolutionised music!" Well, yeah, it was the introduction of album filler. We all want a revolution...That was pretty revolutionary.

[Hermione]

I see a common thread in most of the negative reviews -- the review usually begins with a sarcastic swipe at the "Dookie Days" where Green Day was best known for singing about masturbation, a reminder that they panned American Idiot and "somehow" it went on to become a band-defining success, and then a note about one or both of these subjects: (1) "they offer questions but no answers"; and/or (2) "Know your Enemy" is too repetitive. The positive reviews tend to go a lot deeper than this, discussing the complexities in the album, the richer sound of the music, the maturation of the lyrics, etc. My conclusion: many of the negative reviews are being written by someone coming from the perspective of "I hate Green Day, I've always hated Green Day, I don't know why they got so popular with a piece of shit record like American Idiot, and -- OH GOODY!!! -- they've given me another great reason to lay into them again." The more favorable reviews would, in contrast, seem to be written by people who at least are bringing an open mind to 21CB.

Good thing that BJA doesn't seem to give a flying about what other people think of him.

Well said, and of course 100% true!

[Eldoon]

I see a common thread in most of the negative reviews -- the review usually begins with a sarcastic swipe at the "Dookie Days" where Green Day was best known for singing about masturbation, a reminder that they panned American Idiot and "somehow" it went on to become a band-defining success, and then a note about one or both of these subjects: (1) "they offer questions but no answers"; and/or (2) "Know your Enemy" is too repetitive. The positive reviews tend to go a lot deeper than this, discussing the complexities in the album, the richer sound of the music, the maturation of the lyrics, etc. My conclusion: many of the negative reviews are being written by someone coming from the perspective of "I hate Green Day, I've always hated Green Day, I don't know why they got so popular with a piece of shit record like American Idiot, and -- OH GOODY!!! -- they've given me another great reason to lay into them again." The more favorable reviews would, in contrast, seem to be written by people who at least are bringing an open mind to 21CB.

Good thing that BJA doesn't seem to give a flying about what other people think of him.

Now that you mention it, that DOES become a lot clearer...good catch!

This album is inadvertently separating the wheat from the chaff in terms of rock criticism!

[josh_oliday]

nice

straight to number one in the billboard chart, I'm telling ya

this is it, the moment we've been waiting for

Don't you mean: "We've been...waiting a long time...for this...moment to come."

Also up to 76 lol. They don't have a lot of reviews up...

[SOMERTEN]

J'know I was reading recently about how the music press used to critisize Led Zepplin in their early days, accusing them of ripping off other bands and being a copycat version of more established acts etc. Even when the band was getting huge success with the public they still never let up critisizing. When the press finally caught up with the public they clamoured to interview the band and the band refused.

Fourty years on and music media still know fuck all about music and are totally out of touch. I don't even know why we fuckin need their opinions anymore. If we want to know how an album sounds, we can go into itunes, listen to the clips and make up our own soddin minds!

I think the bottom line for these bitter and twisted gonks is the fact they are failed rock stars jealous of success. When is it national punch a critic day?

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

Led Zeppelin did steal other people's songs.

Just cos they were out over 30 years ago, the legends and the myths far outweigh the points of criticism they will have got at the time.

I don't give a shit about the reviews, I'm happy that Green Day have taken a leaf out of the Clash's book (again) and become a truly evolutionary punk band, moving beyond playing the same song 12 times on an album like the majority of punk bands.

[Eldoon]

Pitchfork's review is up, as it was loading I kept thinking "haha they'll give it a 4 or something," and, SURPRISE, I think it got like a 4.8.

So, no big deal...this is Pitchfork going through the motions...I dunno the purpose of coming out with the review when it's already the #1 album in the country; just kind of a hip wankfest I guess.

The only part of the review that really irked me was bashing Tre and Billie's playing. Who the fuck does that anymore? That's the most hairbrained tactic, and it's pretty uncouth of a P4k reviewer to stoop to the same ideology that some metalhead kid in the 80s would use.

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

There is no group of people I hate more on the internet than fucking pitchfork media. I want them all dead.