Critic Reviews
| 80 |
Alternative Press
Bright Lights is a super-serious record that demostrates some super-serious song craft. [May 2008, p.130]
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
Their sound--enhanced by the energies of a second guitarist, Chris Head, and a bassist, Chris #2--literally urges participation. Every song’s chorus helpfully comes prearranged as a sing-along: no room for sullenness here.
|
| 80 |
Q Magazine
Their thrillingly angry seventh album is a more furious companion piece to "American Idiot," raging at both social injustice and the self-righteousness of the punk underground. [June 2008, p.138]
|
| 60 |
NOW Magazine
On their seventh disc, the music successfully carries the message, thanks in no small part to Bowie/Morrissey/T. Rex producer extraordinaire Tony Visconti, who pumps even more life into these loud, rousing singalong choruses and driving power chords without sacrificing dynamics or naked emotion.
|
| 50 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Too much of the disc, like the histrionic "The Modern Rome Burning," swipes singsong, folk-stoked stridency from Against Me! and American Steel; the rest of it throws random orchestration at the wall and misses it altogether.
|
| 50 |
Rolling Stone
The Bright Lights of America, Anti-Flag's second major-label album and eighth overall, proves for the billionth time that good intentions don't always make good music.
|
| 40 |
Spin
Unfortunately, despite now working with David Bowie producer Tony Visconti, who infuses their angular, system-smashing screeds with timpani ("Good and Ready"), brass ("Shadow of the Dead"), and harmonica ("Go West"), Anti-Flag still don't possess the innate pop sensibility that's allowed Against Me! to make a mainstream move.
|
| 40 |
Sputnikmusic
The ambitious sound of The Bright Lights of America is a dreadful fifty-two minutes long; with an average song length over three minutes.
|
| 40 |
Under The Radar
On the Tony Visconti produced The Bright Lights of America, the band opts for the same brand of pristine song production and testosterone-soaked chants as every other mall-punk band, and, in so doing, makes it hard to discern them from the crowd. [Summer 2008]
|
|
