Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. 70
    Better Living remains a repetitive, tonally monotonous album. But its a repetitiousness which works to further evoke a life of spirit-crushing routine, while reinforcing the idea of a permanent headache.
  2. Q Magazine
    Jun 20, 2012
    40
    Ultimately, it's good to know they're out there straining every nerve, vein and eyeball, even if those who'll want to listen to it more than twice are surely few. [Jun 2012, p.101]
  3. Jun 6, 2012
    40
    As loud and aggressive Flats can sound it can't come close to hiding a lack of pretty much everything other than extreme volume and misplaced nothing-better-to-do-than-have-a-go-at-everyone-else small-minded aggression.
  4. Uncut
    Jun 1, 2012
    60
    Flats look to be stranded between hipster grunge and true hardcore. [Jul 2012, p.71]
  5. May 29, 2012
    70
    Better Living, Flats' 34-minute debut album, is a commendably cacophonous outpouring which contains not the slightest germ of future commercial gold.
  6. Kerrang!
    May 21, 2012
    60
    The fury here comes from an ominous intensity and oppressive claustrophobia. And that makes this album raw, anarchic, bleak and enjoyably nasty. [45 May 2012, p.53]
  7. May 15, 2012
    80
    In sticking two fingers up at both their detractors and Dalston, they've crafted one of the most viscerally engaging British rock albums in years.
  8. Mojo
    May 2, 2012
    40
    Much of Better Living recalls that time when the ugly end of post-Crass anarcho punk segued into the metallic sounds of grindcore... when melody seemed bourgeois and energy was the most valued commodity. [May 2012, p.92]
  9. May 2, 2012
    60
    Raw, exhilarating and completely mystifying.
  10. May 2, 2012
    60
    As opening statements go, Better Living is comprehensive and, as a hardcore punk album, it is extremely successful.
  11. Capped with Dan Devine's vocals – a scream as angry as it is distraught – this is despair with a backbeat, and punk as it should be: courageously self-destructive.

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