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Life...The Best Game In Town
by Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 85 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.0 out of 10
based on 10 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

This is the fifth album for the experimental rock band from Athens, Georgia.

LABEL: Hydra Head
RELEASE DATE: 03 June 2008
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Rock, Experimental

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Life… isn't easy listening (the anvil-heavy ballad 'Roses' alone could drive the clinically depressed to suicide), but the improved contrast between upbeat and harrowing makes Harvey Milk's extremes that much easier to appreciate.
Read Full Review
90
Sputnikmusic
There’s not much else to say that you shouldn’t already know: thick, melodic and endearing, Life...The Best Game in Town is essential listening.
Read Full Review
90
PopMatters
It’s a grim journey, and often creepy as hell, but it’s by no means depressing. Mediocre music is depressing. This stuff is exhilarating.
Read Full Review
86
Pitchfork
The best executed Harvey Milk album to date, and one of the most accomplished metal records you'll hear this year.
Read Full Review
80
Mojo
The 10 songs here complements mainman Creston Spiers' whisper-to-howl vocals with startling dynamic shifts. [Sep 2008, p.106]
80
All Music Guide
Life... showcases a band that has carefully refined its sound, creating an album that is daring and experimental enough for longtime fans, but accessible enough for anyone looking to discover one of Athen's heaviest bands.
Read Full Review
80
Drowned In Sound
Here, all percussion devastates; it pounds away at the insides of Life… The Best Game In Town like a beast caged, packed ready for shipping. Let it loose and all hell’s coming your way.
Read Full Review
80
Dusted Magazine
Life has a wholly predictable uniqueness.
Read Full Review
60
Tiny Mix Tapes
All jokings aside, this record is downright GNARLY despite its hang-ups, impossible to wash from the soul and probably the thickest, grittiest substance you ever did see.
Read Full Review
60
Uncut
While they are at their most comfortable when laying down the ZZ Top meets Black Flag hardcore boogie of 'Skull Socks and Rope Shoes,' it's difficult not to be charmed by their wit, style and salute to Southern rock. [Sep 2008, p.89]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bocce F. gave it an8:
I'm an old gut and I henerally have not been a metal fan for most of my music listening life. However, I tend to give it a try when I read a good review, or two, or six. And I must sy, I like this.

Carl A. gave it a10:
It's like having fun and not having fun at the same time. It's like being punched really hard in the stomach, and then realizing something fantastic in the moment while you're struggling to breathe. Come on. It's really good.

Joe Q gave it a5:
These are the kinds of ratings that make music critics lose their credibility. I've desperately searched this recording to find something the least bit interesting. Shrugs.

Cecil P. gave it a9:
What kind of retard gives this album a 1 out of 10 rating? These guys are brilliant.

othostice gave it a1:
If there were any doubt that most record reviewers are pretentious twits, the positive, the fact that his album has garnered "universal acclaim" is irrefutable evidence. This CD was playing in a record store (remember those?), and I asked the staff who it was, simply because it was almost transcendent in its execrability (like my criticese?). Props for the band name (the mayor of SF killed by the Twinkie defense guy), but (as I told the store employees), "I need to buy this in case my copies of Lou Reed's METAL MACHINE MUSIC and Neil Young's ARC don't rid my house of guests quickly enough." Even the hipper-than-thou staff laughed and nodded. I'd rather listen to fingernails on a blackboard.

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