Metacritic Score not great - Many reviews here

[marino13]

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/mymorningjacket/evilurges

Metacritic score is 74 right now with 18 reviews in.  General rule of thumb on this site is that the score usually comes down as more reviews come in.  If you look at all of the recent scores on the left for other bands, this is a very average score at best.  For comparison, other MMJ releases on this site were as follows:

It Still Moves - 83
Z - 90
Okonokos - 80

You can't argue with the data, people aren't feeling as much love for this album. :(

[cmccubbin25]

yeah...i've been checking that a lot lately.

oh well...i guess it means people aren't getting it.

however, of the positive reviews most people are saying the album is great!

damn Pitchfork review really hurt the score.

not that any of this matters b/c i can't stop listening to it!  ;D

[YouAre_GivenToFly]

Keep in mind that Z got a 90 but was the #2 album overall for that year.

[Hawkeye]

Also keep in mind that the album came out 2 days ago.  At least for me, a good album takes time to grow!  It only gets better and better with each listen.  Give it time.

[Goat Boy]

yeah...i've been checking that a lot lately.

oh well...i guess it means people aren't getting it.

Some people just don't like it perhaps?  Radical idea I know but it has nothing to do with 'getting it'.  Whatever that's supposed to mean anyway?  It would be nice if you explained to a chump like me why YOU get it but others don't.  I'm interested.

Personally I like the album but it's their weakest effort since their debut imo.  

[cmccubbin25]

yeah...i've been checking that a lot lately.

oh well...i guess it means people aren't getting it.

Some people just don't like it perhaps?  Radical idea I know but it has nothing to do with 'getting it'.  Whatever that's supposed to mean anyway?  It would be nice if you explained to a chump like me why YOU get it but others don't.  I'm interested.

Personally I like the album but it's their weakest effort since their debut imo.  

aah...Goat Boy....so lovely to hear from you again.

when i said "get it" i didn't mean in some pretentious my-taste-in-music-is-better-than-yours way or even in an intellectual sense that i "got" and you didn't b/c your brain is as you would say, "rubbish."

i just meant in a general sense that the album obviously didn't affect some as it did others.  i "got it" in the sense that the emotions and themes on the record really touch me (pun intended) and i can understand where Jim is coming from.  if you don't feel that way, then i guess you didn't, for a lack of a better term, "get it."  this doesn't mean i'm smarter or cooler or hipper than you, but it just means i really connected with this album...no more, no less.

sorry to use such an ambiguous term, which obviously seems to have hit a chord with you.

-------

onto another subject...you have already conveyed your displeasure in the album many times.  that's enough...just let it go and let the rest of us bask in the album that we really enjoy.

[evilPaauwe]

all this crap about critics is nonsense.  
   Just because one indivisual from some media corporation  doesnt like it... does that mean it isnt "good".  If i worked for pitchfork i'd give it a great review.  Ultimately, does that make the album "better", simply because i enjoy it.  
    I hate reviews, & i  especially hate lists of "top ten best albums" and "top 100 guitarists".  Sure, some records are vividly better than others, but judging music and making solid conclusions about them is fraught with danger
 

[pjmmj86]

Yeah, I saw this too. Oh well is all I can say. You have to take some of this stuff with a grain of salt too even though this site is respectable, as the Lil Wayne album currently has an 84, which is just ridiculous.

Evil Urges is a very good album in my opinion, probably the best of the year along with the new British Sea Power.

[tomEisenbraun]

Well see, the problem here is that the critic has morphed himself into something he was never meant to be. I think it started with Hollywood, actually, rating movies with Siskel and Ebert and all that. There's really no reason for that.

The art critic has always stood as the theorist behind the work. The people who work hard to give meaning to things, to support the artist's ideas in a way that gives more meaning to their work without debasing it at all. They've sort of been the theorists, I suppose you could say. The ones to interpret the movement, and to help the listener/viewer/reader understand the importance of the work being digested. Never before this century has it been a means to rate a creative work. How much horse shit is that?

The critics, the ones supposed to be the glue for the creative movements, have now become the people we can't trust to objectively seek a fuller understanding of a movement. I think the Paste article is an excellent example of incredible music critique, as it pulls together meaning behind all of it. I don't care that the vehicle for it is quite personal--in fact, it brings more life into it. But the pretense of the Pitchfork review is ridiculous. You don't give a damn review and rate it with decimal points. That completely evades the point of all this. We're in a fallen system and everyone has to have their say, of course, but I think that what we're doing in the Analysis thread for Two Halves is more music criticism than has gone on in 70% of the album reviews Metacritic has hosted.

Am I pissed over bad reviews? Not really. I am pissed that people haven't really sought to bring something to the album with their review. Is that sort of high and mighty to think that MMJ is so big that they deserve some sort of god-like status among reviewers? I don't think so--I think the band has enough riding on this album that it makes sense to not just take it at face value. There really is a shitload to dig into the more you think about it.

[knotstilloose]

i think casual fans havent given the album enough time.  at first listen its a bit, well, different.  Their gut reaction is that it wasnt what they were expecting so they post negative reviews.  I bet that if they keep listening  they will soon regret posting a negative review so early in the game.  That's why I take these reviews with a grain of salt.  I trust my own ear...

[Coltrane]

at least it's no Gavin Rossdale-esque score......



i thought that guy died? who knew?!?!

[tbone]

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/mymorningjacket/evilurges

Metacritic score is 74 right now with 18 reviews in.  General rule of thumb on this site is that the score usually comes down as more reviews come in.  If you look at all of the recent scores on the left for other bands, this is a very average score at best.  For comparison, other MMJ releases on this site were as follows:

It Still Moves - 83
Z - 90
Okonokos - 80

You can't argue with the data, people aren't feeling as much love for this album. :(

Quite honestly - i'm surprised the record got so many good reviews.

I have been a fan of music for a long time and for the life of me - i just can't get into evil urges.  I love the band and respect them immensely - but the new album just rubs me the wrong way.

On "Z" - i couldn't stand "What a wonderful man" and "Into the woods"... "Off the record" was take it/leave it for me - which left me with the amazing "Wordless Chorus" "IBFY" and "Gideon" followed by a "skip" of tracks 4, 5, and 6 - and then a massive return to greatness with Anytime, Lay Low, KCL, and Dondante - which are all freakin' amazing.

Unfortunately (for me) the new record is choppy, uneven, and somewhat sloppy (flame away) compared to what i have heard from them in the past AND expect to hear from them in the future.  "Highly Suspicious" is just highly painful for me to listen to - joke or not.  It's got that same "What a wonderful man" vibe to it.  I can't understand why that song was not a b-side.

My opinion is just that.  It's not "right" it's not "perfect" - it's just mine.

I do feel like we will see MMJ return to form sooner rather than later with a much bigger and bad ass sound on their next effort.  I would never question the immense talent this band possesses.  Everyone is entitled to an "off" day - and for me - Evil Urges is MMJ's off day.  

Not trying to offend anyone here.  I really do love this band and all that they mean to me.  It's just 1 little person's opinion.

:(