Critics: “No Idea”

DNRC072 | LP | 2010 | DELETED

Critics spent most of the year 2010 panning other bands’ records – hence there’s not much actually to speak of here, on their debut album for DNRC, except perhaps bitterness in the form of lead single “Sourer Than Lemon”, an apparent reference to an argument within the band about the merits or otherwise of the U2 song “Lemon”. Listen for yourself to find out who came out on top in that reportedly “heated” live-to-air debate. Elsewhere, “Pre-Green” discusses the pros and cons of REM’s career prior to and post-major-label-debut-album, Green, with the title hinting at the band’s predictable conclusion; similarly, “No Longer, Dirty” disses the career of Sonic Youth post-Goo, with devastating consequences for their relationship with former producer Lee Rumour (yes, he of Rumour and The Four Calling Birds infamy), who can be heard during the final bars of the song staking his professional career on the brilliance of NYC Ghosts & Flowers, only to be met by howls of derisory feedback from the guitars of all five members of Critics, thus signalling the end of the argument altogether. The other seven songs on this dawdling release name check various 80s bands, with the result that 2010 seemed to come and go like a tram running late, and still Critics had no idea. Hence the album title, we suppose, and hence the deletion of this extremely tedious and argumentative piece of nerd-pop mere seconds before its early release from the Tribesco Correctional Facility.