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Unexpected as they are, Defense's sonic twists almost always work, justifying the album's 89-minute run time.
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Defense of the Genre is the best major label release of the year, and the most surprising album to boot.
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Alternative PressBemis successfully came out of the other side on In Defense Of The Genre, producing an opus that musicians more than twice his age could only hope to create. [Dec 2007, p.185]
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Bemis has concocted a deliciously confounding album that transcends emo more than defends it.
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The result is a mess but--thanks to Bemis’s passion, humor and knack for inserting multiple hooks into a single song--an exhilarating one.
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SpinYet with its detours into slick synth pop, weepy roots rock, and big Broadway music, the sprawling Genre proves that emo needn't be boxed in by stylistic dogma. [Dec 2007, p.120]
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Bemis may be seeking to defend the emo genre, but his album instead illustrates the difference between run-of-the-mill emo--which, indeed, comprises most of the genre's output--and the imaginative, skillful tunes that flourish here. The only major downside is the album's length.
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In Defense of the Genre does defeat the emo stigma and the double CD stigma easily, and does improve slightly on the pretty-good "…Is a Real Boy." But these are minor inventions; any "genius" is pretty much limited to the bites and nuggets reported here.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 38
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Mixed: 1 out of 38
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Negative: 8 out of 38
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Sep 17, 2013
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Mar 19, 2012
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HunterG.Sep 2, 2008Say anything is defiantly one of the greatest bands of its generation. Lead singer, Max bemis, is truly one of the best songwriters of all time.