• Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: Mar 18, 2003
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 16
  2. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. Blender
    40
    They still spit nervous energy, but Shelly's melodies have suffered, and his pubescent whines have unfortunately matured into apologies for bad behavior. [#15, p.121]
  2. Uncut
    60
    Their love batteries have all but corroded and instead we've hangovers and metropolitan psychosis over the kind of guttural guitars you'd expect from their bastard American offspring. [May 2003, p.89]
  3. The album is good -- remarkably so considering how late it comes in a group's life span -- but it's still a late-era release and suffers from many of the same problems so common to that milieu.
  4. Granted, Buzzcocks sounds very '77/'78, albeit with better production, but it's largely devoid of the hooks, the melodies, and the anxious, deconstructed bubblegum pop feel that made the band's early material so memorable.
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 4
  2. Negative: 1 out of 4
  1. Sep 15, 2014
    10
    My review is the brand new 2014 release of the NEW Buzzcocks album "The Way" since this metacritic site is too lame to actually keep up withMy review is the brand new 2014 release of the NEW Buzzcocks album "The Way" since this metacritic site is too lame to actually keep up with anything that isn't force fed music, and most of it isn't written by the people who appear on the covers and titles of the music. So lame. So, anyway. The Buzzcocks ( Yes , The Beatles of Punk Rock) just put out another album. It's A BLAST ! It's fun, fun, fun, fun, stuff. Being you are reading this review, you might actually get it, where most here are brainwashed into thinking arcade fire, or U2, or coldplay deserve any attention. That stuff is what I like to refer to as musical diarrhea. Back to the Buzzcocks 2014 release of "The Way" Each song contains a tasty bit of the original sound the Buzzcocks discharged into the minds of so many unsuspecting people three decades ago, and it continues today. It's a blast. My cravings for pop/punk goodness were fulfilled. It's a well written, great sounding CD with a lot of driving melodic songs that should be shared on many radio stations, but will never get any attention there. How sad, here we have this wonderful brand new CD from one of the best bands in recent history, and no one knows its here. But, lucky for you, you now do. I am going to see The Buzzcocks this week, and this time around, I actually hope they play a few from this new album. You know how it is when you go to see a band you love, and they kind of punish you with some of their new songs, that's not the case here. These new songs are great. More fun stuff from "The Beatles of Punk Rock, The Buzzcocks. Yes, coldplay, and U2 and Arcade Fire are just musical Diarrhea, so there. Full Review »
  2. MilesD
    Mar 24, 2006
    8
    Dense and loud!