The Facts Of Life - Black Box Recorder
User Score
8.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4

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  1. BenjaminBunny
    Apr 1, 2004
    7
    "The Art Of Driving," "The English Motorway System" and the title track are the most beautiful, brilliant and wryly moving tracks of this outfit's career. Unfortunately, the same can not be said of at least a third of the album which, at its worst, delves into overslick and trite examinations of adolescent sexuality. It's definitely worth purchasing for the above-mentioned songs, but keep your finger on the "track-forward" button. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. SabalomG.
    May 18, 2002
    9
    Trust the Americans to fail to grasp wry irony and pitch-black social commentary. This is a fabulous album, and that's a "fact of li - "...what? Oh, sorry.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 16
  2. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Luke Haines, of nineties nobodies The Auteurs and Baader Meinhof, together with Sarah Nixey and John Moore, appear to have taken Saint Etienne's 'Like a Motorway' (from 'Tiger Bay') and driven away with it in a battered Ford Escort to a distant destination, a concept album about motorways and travelling.
  2. An album of surface comfort masking massive insecurities -- a perfect complement to the nation it so redolently evokes.
  3. 80
    They elaborate on the love/disappointment/death themes of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" while merging the sensibilities of the Velvet Underground and Vitamin C. [June 2001, p.153]