Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
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  1. 90
    The songs are great. ... This is a collection of brilliant, swinging rockers. [Jun 2023, p.76]
  2. Apr 20, 2023
    80
    There’s little sense of genuine band unity on Defiance Part 1. But ultimately that’s no serious liability because as the focal point of the project, Ian Hunter evinces a stubborn independence that overrides this album’s slight blemishes.
  3. Apr 20, 2023
    80
    “People say people my age shouldn’t be making records,” Hunter has said. With his mind still agile, his piano playing still on top form and his voice still strong, Defiance Part 1 makes a nonsense of that. At 83, Hunter also sounds much more starry-eyed about rock’n’roll than he did in Diary Of A Rock’N’Roll Star. [May 2023, p.90
  4. Uncut
    Apr 20, 2023
    70
    If it lacks the politicised urgency of previous 21st-century Hunter albums, or much surprise, his faith in a rock'n'roll cause first signed up to in the '50s has its own majesty. [Jun 2023, p.31]
  5. 70
    The performances smartly stick to rockers since the few ballads (“Guernica” and “No Hard Feelings”), while darkly tuneful, expose the limitations of Hunter’s voice, now a shadow of his “All the Young Dudes” heyday. But give him credit for refusing to tweak it with electronic enhancers and writing some terrific tunes, which he attacks with more vigor than many a quarter of his age.

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