- Critic score
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I can't remember the last time a popular punk album sounded this simple, lean and ready to conquer anything in its path.
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Polysyllabic and self-aware, this is the best political punk in years.
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Vig both sweetens and strengthens Against Me!'s attack without sacrificing the band's innate Raggedy Andy appeal.
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New Wave's triumph is its ability to rise above Butch Vig's airtight alt-rock production with gruffly sung, hook-heavy songs that show a dark maturity (such as the impressionist, dreamlike "The Ocean") while perpetuating AM's shout-along populism.
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New Wave is crisp, direct, and sharp. It's clean, but not glossy; it's defiant; it's brash; it's heartfelt.
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Superproducer Butch Vig is around to help transform Gabel’s strident leftism and occasionally clumsy choruses (e.g., "Protest Songs! In response to military aggression!") into swing-state-ready stadium rock.
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Their best album to date.
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While New Wave will probably compel you to pay attention to singer Tom Gabel's rasping rants, it's still a record that's pretty damn fun to dance around to.
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It’s still a short, sharp shock: 10 songs, with no shortage of vehemence.
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With help from name producer Butch Vig, Tom Gabel's emo-hardcore band makes them rock.
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It's easy to enjoy on a superficial level, because the music is well written and enjoyable, and lyrically it's more than I could have expected.
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Q MagazineThe likes of 'Americans Abroad' and 'White People For Peace' pick up where Green Day's "American Idiot" left off, channelling righteous fury into a racket that's as vigorous as it's earnest. [Sep 2007, p.88]
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These are longstanding punk tropes boiled down and Vig-ed up, removed of their typical dirt sheen and bolstered by a couple extra guitar tracks.
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While most Against Me! fans are likely to think New Wave is inferior to their previous work--and they’re probably right--this is still an album that gets their foot in the door to the big show, and if they use it as something to build on, they can do some damage in the future.
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I’d argue, though, that being an expert on the group’s verbose and ragged past wouldn’t help all that much. This is a different sounding band with pretty much the exact same lyrical concerns.
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It will probably go down as their 'sell-out' record, in that it's their first for a major label.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 41 out of 59
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Mixed: 6 out of 59
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Negative: 12 out of 59
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SamK.Oct 21, 2007
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EinarJ.May 7, 2008
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DanaC.Feb 25, 2008