User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
  • Record Label:
  • Release Date:
Art Brut vs. Satan Image
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 9 Ratings

  • Summary: The third album for the English band was produced by Black Francis (aka Frank Black).
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 24
  2. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. While it’s misleading to call an album “mature” when it plunders rock history for riffs and features an ode to comic books, Argos has done some growing up.
  2. Francis' production has noticeably tightened the band's sound, as Freddy Feedback's bass bounces crisply alongside dueling riffs. Art Brut may never shed its screwball charisma, but Satan is a successful step in a mature direction.
  3. They may be eternal adolescents, but they're also true believers in what made rock & roll great in the first place. They won't hide--can't hide--that enthusiasm, and it's contagious on Art Brut vs. Satan.
  4. Under The Radar
    70
    Frank Black's stripped down, workman-like approach to these recordings has allowed for this act's still building talent to shine through. [Spring 2009, p.64]
  5. As always, the level of enjoyment depends on your patience for this kind of reflective, hollowly structured post-music, which examines the constructs of its genre even as it pushes forward with them at full speed.
  6. Art Brut vs. Satan is somewhere in the middle; good enough to be worth a couple of listens but enough bad at times to frustrate and make you wonder what might have been.
  7. For Art Brut vs. Satan, the band didn’t need Frank Black to give them an edge; they needed a mentor to help them focus on their real message: changing the musical landscape. Satan may have won this round, but don’t count out Art Brut. Not just yet.

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Mar 15, 2011
    9
    ... where Frank Black's production meets Art Brut's edgy, spiky punk. Not a perfect album by any stretch of the imagination, but the... where Frank Black's production meets Art Brut's edgy, spiky punk. Not a perfect album by any stretch of the imagination, but the highlights outweigh the lowpoints in both potency and frequency. A raw, exciting (if somewhat flawed) album which will please fans of both Art Brut and Frank Black. Expand