User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info

The Obliterati
by
  • Record Label:
  • Release Date:
The Obliterati Image
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 25 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 16 Ratings

  • Summary: While the trio of Roger Miller, Clint Conley and Peter Prescott typically wait a few decades between albums, this third LP follows just two years after their second.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. The A.V. Club
    91
    As the price of success, The Obliterati faces significantly higher expectations. Once again, though, Burma succeeds and surprises by playing to its strengths while moving forward.
  2. Drawer B
    90
    This is Mission of Burma’s most aggressive and impassioned record to date.
  3. cokemachineglow
    82
    They’ve managed to produce the best American rock record of the year so far.
  4. Under The Radar
    80
    Everything is crisp and fits nicely together to make this a really enjoyable album. [Summer 2006, p.92]
    All this publication's reviews
  5. Blender
    70
    A fierce, arty mix of melody and brute clatter. [Jun 2006, p.141]
    All this publication's reviews
  6. Delusions of Adequacy
    70
    So whilst The Obliterati is certainly not a patch on the seminal Vs. - given that it lacks the same magical combination of cerebral claustrophobia and kinetic psychosis - it’s easily more potent than the over-oiled ONoffON.
  7. PopMatters
    60
    What really lifts this out of the ordinary is the undeniable craft that has gone into the song writing.

See all 25 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 12
  3. Negative: 2 out of 12
  1. [Anonymous]
    May 23, 2006
    10
    Scores better than their last album... and their last album was pretty damn good. Solid from beginning to end. Easily one of the best albums Scores better than their last album... and their last album was pretty damn good. Solid from beginning to end. Easily one of the best albums of the year.… Expand
  2. ThomG
    Dec 5, 2006
    10
    Almost as good as Vs.
  4. MarkD.
    May 24, 2006
    10
    Album of the year, thus far. New bands will be weened on this 20 years from now. I can't believe how good it sounds.
  5. CalmeaT
    Jun 29, 2006
    10
    Great album! I'd give it an 11 if I could. Way better than OnOffOn and up there with Vs.
  6. BrendanD
    Jun 30, 2006
    10
    While the Burmese dudes and the ex-Grandaddy fellows battle it out for best album of the first half of 2006, I'd like to take a moment While the Burmese dudes and the ex-Grandaddy fellows battle it out for best album of the first half of 2006, I'd like to take a moment to explain why this record is a masterpiece. It is for precicely the reason that Lee W gave it a 1, except for one thing that Lee overlooked: there are few albums that rock this hard and can claim to have killer melodies on every single track. That's a feat never accomplished by even the best of the grunge-era bands, and even punk masters like the Ramones weren't always able to stay tuneful. Mission of Burma, however, always has, and they've now proven it with three masterpiece albums. Don't fool yourselves; this is nowhere near the greatest record of all time, and it still can't compare to "Signals, Calls and Marches." But take a gander at "Donna Sumeria," my favorite track on here, and you'll hear the full difference between punk and post-punk. Both punk and post-punk are all about big, exciting, tuneful choruses; but whereas punk songs get to those choruses as fast as they can (or, in the case of the best of punk tunes, they just begin with the chorus), post-punk songs take their time, building it up until you feel like you're about to burst, then taking your head off by making the chorus better than you ever could have imagined. Mission of Burma pulled this trick geniously on one of the greatest songs of all time, "That's When I Reach For My Revolver," and they pull it off again on "Donna Sumeria." But that's not to say that the rest of this album doesn't kick every listener, male of female, in the figurative balls. Beginning with the unreal "2wice," there are licks that Kurt Cobain would have killed for (and Cobain had some pretty great licks himself); "The Mute Speaks Out" plays like the greater psychedelic period of the Smashing Pumpkins never existed; and even the worst track on the record, "Period," could have been a big underground hit at the '70s CBGB scene. This album is absolutely stellar, a third masterpiece for the reunited geniuses.… Collapse
  7. TomC
    May 29, 2006
    9
    This has definitely suprised me. I absolutely love it and cannot stop listening to it. Definitely one of my favorites of the last few months, This has definitely suprised me. I absolutely love it and cannot stop listening to it. Definitely one of my favorites of the last few months, for sure.… Expand
  8. DaveA
    May 27, 2006
    0
    sucks.

See all 12 User Reviews

Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Best Album of 2006