Killing Puritans
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Controversy
The album's cover art prominently featured an African child soldier, prone, aiming a rifle. The image was controversial enough to threaten the album to be banned worldwide. Eventually, UK versions of the album were sold in a plain brown cardboard sleeve that concealed the offending image.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Track listing
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Critical reception
Critical reception to the album was varied, with coverage ranging from mostly positive, to mixed to significantly negative.
A reviewer for AllMusic felt that the music was better suited to nightclubs rather than personal listening, with heavy club themes alongside freestyle rapping and "diva theatrics". The music was generally considered to be an enjoyable blend of several different genres but lacking in anything to make it a true hit.[1]
An NME review was generally positive towards the music quality of the songs played, again noting of the skill set across multiple genres. However it was criticized for its attempts to claim social relevance, particularly in relation to Armand's claims to breaks taboos, while failing to make any clear-cut social indication and is instead similar to the dance industry most criticized by the author.[2]
A critic for LA Weekly called Killing Puritans "a very bad album, both in its politics and its sound", indicating that the mix of genres complimented elsewhere in fact reduced any coherence of the album, rendering it as a mixture of songs - with further criticism of the quality of most.[3]
A review in Exclaim! gave a mixed analysis of Killing Puritans. Many of the songs have their musical competence complimented "eclectic, energetic and full of attitude", but the review contrasts them with stodgy performance elsewhere. Several songs come in for particular criticism lyrically as standard dance culture, not up to prior music by Armand.[4]
Charts
| Chart (2000) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[5] | 170 |
| UK Albums Chart | 38 |
| Belgium Albums Chart[6] | 49 |
Release history
| Country | Release Date | Format | Label | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | May 29, 2000[7] | CD Album | London | 8573833195[7] |
| USA | October 1, 2005[8] | CD Album |
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
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- ↑ a b [1]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- ↑ [2]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
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