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Know Your Enemy - Manic Street Preachers
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
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  1. Pitchfork
    75
    Know Your Enemy finds the Manics attempting to write a protest song in just about every genre. This project, stretched out over 16 tracks and 75 minutes, quickly reaches epic proportions, with an ambition approached only by the magnitude of its flaws.
  2. HOB.com
    70
    Know Your Enemy loses all its momentum when Manic Street Preachers decide that they have something to say.
  3. Dot Music
    70
    A bit of judicious pruning to remove the filler tracks would have resulted in a cohesive, dynamic album that would have easily been their best release to date.
  4. Mojo
    70
    The record is such a sprawling, unwieldy beast that the instrumental hooks take time to emerge.
  5. Launch.com
    70
    While the group's last two records have been majestic, pretentious, and overly polished, this one is more urgent and inviting, running the gamut from Beach Boys whimsy to Jesus And Mary Chain bluster.
  6. All Music Guide
    60
    When it works, this can be pretty invigorating, but when it doesn't, it's utterly maddening.
  7. Q Magazine
    60
    Cull the arrogance, the laziness, the ill-considered ignorance, the (that word yet again) sneering, and there wouldn't be a better album than Know Your Enemy, and not just of this year. Cull the brave lyrics, the moments of inspiration, the songs to treasure and the moments of honesty and, were it available in dogfood form, you wouldn't feed Know Your Enemy to your hounds.
  8. Alternative Press
    60
    If 1987-era U2 is your bag, you'll dig it. [Jul 2001, p.74]
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  9. CDNow
    60
    Know Your Enemy is a fine -- if slightly long and somewhat fractured -- primer to the moods of one of Britain's most (self) important bands
  10. Rolling Stone
    0
    Nowhere amidst all the confusion is there even a worthwhile tune to be salvaged. Hideously dull.
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User Reviews

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User Score
9.1 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. JuliaA
    8
    there's nothing wrong with this album, but the thing that made it sounds bad was people are still in such a mood of 'This Is My Truth...'...you know...TIMTTMY was not a quick-paced music,so when they're back with the rocky KYE,it was a bit of 'shock therapy' for people (the critiques).this is an alright album with superb contents. but still...I gave it 8 because eventhough I'm an avid fan of every single MSP album, I can't get myself to enjoy 'Wattsville Blues' (Nicky must be drunk when he sings,it's so out of tunes) and 'So Why So Sad' (it must be the intro.that 'parapa-parapa-parapa' chants made it sounded,well,cheesy).those two songs just don't fit there.… Full Review »
  2. donniedarko
    7
    some songs are very good! Ocean spray, So why so sad are the best, and u will never find songs similar to them in any album in the history, but as a whole This is My Truth Tell me Yours is their best album! maybe the only album in my music listening history that i really loved each single song in it!… Full Review »
  3. JorisV.
    10
    Sorry people I don't get it, It's my favourite Manics album and one you can listen to over and over again because of the great variety of styles! From Ocean Spray to intensive rockers as Intravenous Agnostic and the great Dead Martyrs, this album is the real thing. Experimental and beautiful, a not so common combination nowadays… Full Review »
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